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More good news for those anticipating 45nm processors

Six days after DailyTech broke the news of Intel's 45nm Penryn tape-out, the company responded today with an official announcement regarding the story.

A statement sent to DailyTech reads "Paul [Otellini] said we have working samples of the Penryn processors -- and in a short period of time have already booted 4 operating systems (Windows Vista, XP, Linux and Apple Mac OS-X)."

The original DailyTech report only specified that Windows had booted off the new CPU. 

The company would not comment on whether or not Penryn's launch window was moved up, but added "These are good indicators of how healthy our 45 nm manufacturing and future product designs are looking so far as we plan to begin manufacturing production in the second half of the year ramping to three 300mm factories in 2008."

The two of the three 300mm facility mentioned are Fab 32 Chandler, Arizona and Fab 28 in Qiryat Gat, Israel.  Development for 45nm processors is currently done at Intel's D1D facility in Oregon.  All three facilities are expected to be fully production-ready for 300mm wafers on 45nm nodes by 2008.

In early 2006 the company announced it will build a massive 300mm wafer facility in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

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Question regarding tape-outs
By Blackraven on 1/17/2007 8:15:34 AM , Rating: 2
How does it work?

Is it by chance that a tape-out can occur?
Is it due to technological advancements that lead to higher yields in early stages or production?
Are tape-outs doable (esp. for Intel's future processors)?

Questions like those.




RE: Question regarding tape-outs
By Viditor on 1/17/2007 8:33:29 AM , Rating: 2
A first tape out is when all of the designs that the various teams have been working on is first made into a mask and silicon is produced.
Having it be bootable is certainly a cause for celebration because you have to remember that none of those designs have actually been built together before...

That said, this is nowhere near what will be released at the end of the year yet. There are still at least 2 turns of tweaks and modifications that need to be performed before volume production can occur (a "turn" is the period it takes to turn a silicon wafer into chips...about 90 days).


RE: Question regarding tape-outs
By IntelUser2000 on 1/17/2007 9:33:59 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
That said, this is nowhere near what will be released at the end of the year yet. There are still at least 2 turns of tweaks and modifications that need to be performed before volume production can occur (a "turn" is the period it takes to turn a silicon wafer into chips...about 90 days).


For those that don't know or forgot, Intel's 45nm Penryn TAPED OUT NOVEMBER 2006.


RE: Question regarding tape-outs
By Viditor on 1/17/2007 9:56:25 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
For those that don't know or forgot, Intel's 45nm Penryn TAPED OUT NOVEMBER 2006


Exactly...the rule of thumb is that products are released about 1 year after first tape out. Remember that they have to begin volume production at least 4-6 months prior to release (3 months to turn out a wafer, and then you have to build inventory for release).

We should expect to see Penryn on the shelves at the end of 2007, right on schedule.


RE: Question regarding tape-outs
By therealnickdanger on 1/17/2007 10:12:25 AM , Rating: 2
We'll probably see 45nm engineering samples being abused on Xtremesystems.org by this August.

Core3Duo? Yummy.


RE: Question regarding tape-outs
By Zandros on 1/17/2007 5:10:51 PM , Rating: 2
No, Core 3 Duo/Quad would be Nehalem if anything.


RE: Question regarding tape-outs
By masher2 (blog) on 1/17/2007 12:12:43 PM , Rating: 2
> "the rule of thumb is that products are released about 1 year after first tape out..."

The industry average is 9-12 months....but it all depends on the level of debugging required. Given that the first Penryn tapeout seems extraordinarily stable, I'm betting we'll see it a good bit sooner than the end of 2007.


RE: Question regarding tape-outs
By Viditor on 1/18/2007 9:44:12 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
The industry average is 9-12 months


Ummm...no. Certainly not for CPUs (though maybe so if you're talking about all semiconductors, as things like memory tape-outs require very little tweaking afterwards). 1 year is considered the minimum standard for anything but a paper launch in CPUs...


RE: Question regarding tape-outs
By MrBowmore on 1/18/2007 7:43:17 AM , Rating: 2
It isnt THAT fantastic. It´s build on roughly the same architechture, whith "only" few enhancements such as approx. 50 new SSE intructions, I give em creds for that, but the architechture itself is not new, so they know most of the parts work allready.
They got the litography to work right, but to have that to work and also a totally new arcitechture... thats something else, I dont think "Core 3 Quad" Nehalem, will have the same destiny with the 32 nm process node. maybe, causs it will first implement itself on the 45 nm process node. Their roadmaps look really interesting anyhow.


ok
By sprockkets on 1/16/2007 11:01:34 PM , Rating: 3
Just keep in mind, frequencies are getting that much better, and the only way processors are getting better is by adding more cores.

Again, how many people again need dual core processors in their computers anyhow? I like how there are s939 2.2ghz AMD 64 OEM processors for $55.




RE: ok
By Regs on 1/17/2007 8:12:55 AM , Rating: 1
Exactly. I can see some limited uses of dual core in multi-tasking for a everyday user like myself who maybe runs photoshop and some other cpu intensive media program in the background. Even then you are still getting the same performance except you don't get the transition penalty half the time.

We still live in the age of single thread x86 applications and that's not going to change anytime soon. So simply slapping on another core is more or less a lateral move more so than a upgrade and I don't care how the marketeers or marketarrets like to spin it. Just like how you have the AMD X2 vs the Intel Core Duo, which one would you pick? The "real" dual core or the "fake" dual core that does everything at least 30% faster?


RE: ok
By masher2 (blog) on 1/17/2007 9:39:55 AM , Rating: 4
> "We still live in the age of single thread x86 applications ..."

You're guilty of assuming that your own personal usage is reflective of the entire world. There are literally thousands of applications that not only make good use of dual cores, but four or more. Pretty much any modeling, simulation, scientific, transcoding, or high-end financial analysis package fits this profile....along with many others. An application I regularly use works well with 326+ cores...and I've had a quad-cpu workstation for 6 or 7 years now.





RE: ok
By masher2 (blog) on 1/17/2007 10:24:43 AM , Rating: 2
edit: 326+ = 32+


RE: ok
By IntelUser2000 on 1/17/2007 11:13:30 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
We still live in the age of single thread x86 applications and that's not going to change anytime soon. So simply slapping on another core is more or less a lateral move more so than a upgrade and I don't care how the marketeers or marketarrets like to spin it. Just like how you have the AMD X2 vs the Intel Core Duo, which one would you pick? The "real" dual core or the "fake" dual core that does everything at least 30% faster?


"Fake" dual core?? X2 is less of a dual core than Core Duo. And its the Core 2 Duo that's 30% faster.


RE: ok
By FITCamaro on 1/17/2007 4:28:44 PM , Rating: 1
Uh...X2 and Conroe are both true dual cores. If you wanna get down to it though, AMDs design is better since both processors can directly talk to each other via their HT links. Even with Conroe, the cores have to talk to each other over the FSB. It's not enough of a bottleneck to slow them down a lot obviously, but think about what'd they do if they could talk directly to one another. And as Intel adds more cores, they'll eventually have to ditch the FSB. AMDs got a leg up in that arena. They just have to add more HT links.

So how is X2 less of a dual core?


RE: ok
By MrBowmore on 1/18/2007 3:26:16 AM , Rating: 3
Hold ya horses!
The Core 2 Quad "talks" through the fsb, the core 2 duo is a solid dual core which have a unified cache, it´s a SINGLE die. The cores DON´T have to go through the fsb to get necessary information. So, no, you are wrong, get it right next time by reading the facts next time.
OnO


god help amd
By Pirks on 1/16/07, Rating: -1
RE: god help amd
By archcommus on 1/16/2007 10:19:11 PM , Rating: 5
We really don't need the "poor AMD" and "OMG what is AMD going to do" comments on EVERY single article about Intel's progress. Yes, Intel is progressing, but AMD will be out with 65 nm mid this year, and so will be about a half generation behind Intel just like they've always been. Fact is, they've got good CPUs, great chipsets, and great GPUs, and are doing just fine.


RE: god help amd
By xFlankerx on 1/16/2007 10:29:23 PM , Rating: 2
Its strange that you call it "half a generation" when Intel's scheduled to release 45nm processors only one quarter after AMD's 65nm. Considering AMD's product will be a C2D competitor, and Intel's will be a successor (as demonstrated by 3.5-4.0Ghz clock speeds), I can't be too optimistic about AMD.

Disclaimer; Typing this from an AMD system. It may have been the product of choice in '05, but times change.


RE: god help amd
By nerdye on 1/16/2007 10:29:44 PM , Rating: 2
I agree that we hear, omg amd is finished all the time due to announcements of intel's current developments. I can't refute that 65nm runs pretty darn cool compared to 90nm cpus, the same will be true with 65nm compared to 45nm. Amd is not finished, am2 was a rough transition to ddr2 that perhaps only awarded the am2 adopters the ability to migrate their am2's ddr2 memory to their next amd rig (who wants to run an am2 mobo on a yet to be released hypertransport 3.0 cpu, seems silly), but amd still lives. Performance is the key to profits in the tech industry, yet we have some exceptions based on reputation, p4 netburst anyone? Amd64 has a great reputation and that is what amd will live and breath on until they have a true competitor to core 2 duo. Amd is not out for the count, only time will tell.


RE: god help amd
By melgross on 1/17/2007 12:01:36 AM , Rating: 2
AMD is about a generation behind. They're trying to move to half a generation. They hope to accomplish that by end of 2008.

Right now, they have announced 65 nm, but supply is almost non-existent. Don't expect to see ample supplies of their first unoptimised chips for another two months.

Intel will be moving off it shortly aftwewards.