News - IDF 2010: Intel plans 15nm Atom

[HEXUS]

Ultra-small chip-design hits the roadmap for future low-power processors.

Read more.

[BullDogg]

At last! My Chemistry degree let me understand something in the real world!

[Steve]

As chips get smaller, quantum effects - specifically tunnelling, which essentially means that atoms have a chance of passing through materials - start to become much more of an issue.

Every day I run full pelt at a wall in the hope that all of my atoms will successfully tunnel through the wall.

I have yet to have any success.

[semo]

ugh.. "Moore's law"... all Moore did was an observation. ****ing marketing people propagating bs

[Fraz]

Its the electrons that would be doing the tunnelling, not the atoms. Bit of a bummer if your electrons start tunnelling across the insulator (i.e. potential barrier) between transistors and flip a bit that was off to on, etc.

[BullDogg]

Its the electrons that would be doing the tunnelling, not the atoms. Bit of a bummer if your electrons start tunnelling across the insulator (i.e. potential barrier) between transistors and flip a bit that was off to on, etc.

You are, of course, correct. I'm fairly sure atoms (not Atoms) can tunnel, it's just really, really unlikely.

[MorrisR]

You are, of course, correct. I'm fairly sure atoms (not Atoms) can tunnel, it's just really, really unlikely.

I'm not at all certain that they could; in fact I'm very uncertain - lots of uncertainty.

[Jedibeeftrix]

interesting that rumours suggest a substantially updated core for 15nm atom, back to out-of-order perhaps?