Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 review: A look at Penryn
Posted by Julio Franco on 19 November 2007 - 10:05 · 9 comments & 8308 views
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Full name: Julio Franco
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(2 replies)
#2 Posted by mrmckeb on 19 Nov 2007 - 10:40
- MMMMMmmmmmmm. Tastey. When that drops to around $400 - I'll buy!
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#2.1 Posted by Xenomorph on 19 Nov 2007 - 14:46
- Quote - (mrmckeb said @ #2)MMMMMmmmmmmm. Tastey. When that drops to around $400 - I'll buy!
When it drops to $80, I may get it.
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(3 replies)
#3 Posted by Samboini on 19 Nov 2007 - 10:50
- I don't see what the big deal is about them changing materials; when the processors drop down to pm level they will probably have to change again.
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#3.1 Posted by kaiwai on 19 Nov 2007 - 14:38
- Quote - (Samboini said @ #3)I don't see what the big deal is about them changing materials; when the processors drop down to pm level they will probably have to change again.
That and they're using a new material which hasn't been time tested; if this is the first, I'd sooner wait a few more years once they get some of the issues resolved. -
#3.2 Posted by MioTheGreat on 19 Nov 2007 - 15:38
- The semiconductor industry has been using SiO2 for the gate dielectric for as long as they've been using Silicion. Nearly 50 years! They've tweaked it, certianly, adding nitrogen and stuff, but nothing big. It's only in recent years that anyone's been able to find the need/ability to change it. I believe two other manufacturers are also going to be using high-k dielectrics (IBM and someone else). And they also had to change the gate electrode from Polysilicion to a metal, which was another big deal (It gets weird with the work function and the interface between the dielectric and the electrode, or something. To be honest, at some point, it just flies over my head.)
The gate is arguably the single most important part of the FET. It's the part that 'makes it all work', and they've changed the two materials that make it up. I'd say it's a pretty big deal.
Also, processors as we know them will probably never drop down the picometer level. That's subatomic. These gates were already 5 atoms thick, and suffering from pretty big electron tunnelling problems. (That's electronics quantum magically skipping over the dielectric, as if it wasn't there.) I believe they actually doubled the thickness of the dielectric to prevent that here, making the chip a few atoms thicker, and substantially lowering power consumption/heat generation.
Instead, they'll probably focus more on 3d building of chips once we hit the limit of how small we can make these things. I believe the thickness of the silicon wafer can be made considerably thinner, since the bulk is largely useless, and then stacked on top of another, and another, and another.
Last edited by MioTheGreat on 19 Nov 2007 - 15:57 -
#3.3 Posted by K3vlar on 19 Nov 2007 - 16:55
- Quote - (kaiwai said @ #3.1)Quote - (Samboini said @ #3)I don't see what the big deal is about them changing materials; when the processors drop down to pm level they will probably have to change again.
That and they're using a new material which hasn't been time tested; if this is the first, I'd sooner wait a few more years once they get some of the issues resolved.
There will be issues, certainly, but I'm sure Intel has an Extremely Intense™ Q/A process, to ensure that the processor doesn't have any major flaws.
Sure, there may be a slightly higher failure rate, or they may not last as long, or something...
But these problems will never be identified until people buy them, and only then, can they do something about it.
So the problems with early adoption is that yes, there can be some problems, but more likely, your problems will be dealt with, and you get to be one of the few, to test a truly amazing new product.
The Core 2 Extreme QX9650 is the first of many products to be released using the Penryn architecture. Like the previous Core 2 Extreme QX6850, the QX9650 also works at 3.0GHz but adds a number of enhancements. Perhaps the most prominent, Intel's 45nm High-k metal gate silicon technology, which is claimed to be an industry's first, featuring transistors with reduced current leakage designed to decrease power consumption while also accommodating for increased clock speeds. This is a big deal considering Intel has used the conventional silicon-oxide technique since 1960.