Intel counting twice on Moore's law

BANGALORE: Delivering the keynote address at the Intel Developer's Forum 2002

in Bangalore, Intel Corporation vice president and CTO, Patrick Gelsinger

expressed his hope that Moore's law is going to hold on for decades to come.

"We do not see an end to Moore's law, as we move forward we are going to

integrate more Mhz and more MIPS to the processor to fuel this industry,"

he added.

For Intel Driving Moore's law means reducing process geometries - shrinking

the size of the devices populating and powering the silicon. Shrinking the space

geometries makes more space available to bring additional number, kind of

devices and functions to the chip. "To extend Moore's law, Intel

researchers are already identifying and eliminating any barriers that impede the

company's ability to fulfill it, by focusing on fundamentals of silicon process

and manufacturing, including improvements in Lithography, transistor structure

and packaging structure," he explained.

The company's researchers are also in the process of expanding the law -

identifying and pursuing technologies that take the silicon beyond just

transistors and performance, and making it possible to integrate new devices

that deliver entirely new capabilities. "As silicon based transistor count

doubles every 24 months, so will our ability to increase their complexity and

integrate the convergence of many varieties of devices on a chip," Patrick

added.

Driving Moore's law also means an increased networking and collaboration with

consortia, standards setting bodies, suppliers, collaborators and customers of

the silicon. Intel has implemented a concept called 'research without walls’,

which, involves an expanded innovation ecosystem. The company is a firm believer

that the expansion of Moore's law will fuel the industry to move forward into

the future and innovate new products and applications.

As of now the company is engaged in the development of Radio Free chips where

it is taking the help of micro electro- mechanical systems to reduce the power

consumption while designing silicon chips. "Lowering of power consumption

means integration of more power to the chip. We are also trying to build a

silicon radio where we are integrating WAN, LAN and a PAN into a cellphone with

the help of CMOS," he explained.