Intel Tri-Gate brings new dimension to transistor technology

New transistors for 22nm chips promise 'unprecedented combination of power savings and performance gains'

Intel has announced what it claims are the world's first transistors to depart from the standard flat 2D architecture, and use a third dimension.

Called Tri-Gate, the new technology was demonstrated in Intel's latest 22nm microprocessor, codenamed Ivy Bridge, "the first volume production chip to use Tri-Gate transistors," said Intel.

Intel senior fellow Mark Bohr said that Tri-Gate "would not just keep up with Moore's Law [but] far exceed what we typically see from one process generation to the next".

The Tri-Gate transistors use over 50 per cent less power than previous planar models, Intel said, while giving a performance boost of 37 per cent.

"The general structure of the transistors is well known since we first published results in 2002," said Bohr.

"The real challenge is to make it manufacturable. We think this gives us a three-year lead on the rest of the industry, and we can scale this for 14nm production."

Intel said that the chips will initially be used for server processors, then client systems and finally the Atom processor, which the firm is hoping to make the processor of choice for tablets and smartphones.