AMD in the firing line as Intel pulls on its Penryn boxing gloves

By Stevie Smith Nov 12, 2007, 13:47 GMT

Leading chipmaker Intel Corporation has unveiled its new \'Penryn\' Xeon 5400 processors, which are built using 45nm technology. Credit: Intel.

AMD may well be bracing for impact this week in the wake of California-based chipmaker Intel Corporation puffing out its corporate and technological chest to accompany the weekend unveiling of its latest high-speed processors.

Intel Corp., the world’s biggest CPU manufacturer, rolled out its new ‘Penryn’ processing technology this Sunday, which arrives as the world’s first mass-produced 45-nanometer (nm) chip and is around one third smaller than the current population of 65nm chips.

To put that into perspective from a sizing point of view, a Reuters report reveals that a nanometer represents one-billionth of a metre, while Intel’s new 45nm technology allows for the creation of circuitry approximately 200 times smaller than a human blood cell.

While the new Penryn CPUs are not expected to deliver anything notable in terms of fundamental advances connected to chip design, the introduction of 45nm technology maintains Intel’s drive to consistently produce chips every two years that boast increased performance while decreasing physical sizing.

The 45nm processors have been created by Intel through the utilisation of a new kind of transistor technology, which was revealed earlier in the year to great industry acclaim. Also, Intel is keen to point out that its new Penryn technology shows the company as "increasing performance and increasing energy efficiency."

The introduction of Penryn technology, which will be incorporated into Intel’s line as a wide-ranging family of Xeon 5400 processors, comes close behind the recent unveiling of the Barcelona quad-core CPU from rival chipmaker AMD.

15 separate server processors are to be launched today under the Penryn banner, along with a new Core 2 Extreme desktop chip. A range of other chips for use in mainstream desktop and laptop hardware is expected to appear in Q1 of 2008.

In terms of numbers related to potential speed increases prompted by the introduction of the new Xeon 5400 and Core 2 Extreme chips, principal analyst Nathan Brookwood of Insight 64 offers that Intel’s shrunken technology will likely see software performance boosted by around 15 percent.

California-based Intel Corp.’s introduction of 45nm processors marks a sizeable step forward when gauged against the placement of rival chipmaker AMD, which only began production of its own 65nm chips earlier in 2007 – although AMD does hope to produce its own 45nm products before the close of 2008.

The server-specific range of 45nm processors are expected to retail for between $177 USD and $1,279 USD, while the Core 2 Extreme chip will sell for around $999 USD.