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It’s a major change from the two-dimensional flat transistor structure we all know and love, which has powered every computer chip for the last 50 years. The 3-D switch design and the scale of its production will allow Moore’s Law to advance apace, Intel said.

Moore’s Law holds that the number of transistors that can be placed on a circuit will double every two years, but this places limits on the circuits’ size — a growing problem as engineers cram greater numbers of transistors onto ever-tinier chips. A 3-D switch could allow computer chips to be built like skyscrapers, optimizing space by building upward, and thereby allowing uninhibited transistor growth.

The Tri-Gate transistors consist of a thin 3-D silicon fin that arises vertically from the silicon substrate, Intel explains. Each fin has three gates, one on the top and one on each side, which allows for greater transistor current control. When it’s on, current flow is more efficient, and when the switches are off, the flow of electrons is closer to zero. By contrast, flat transistors have one gate, only on top.

All this leads to greater efficiency, allowing chips to operate at a lower voltage and with lower leakage — Intel claims a whopping 37 percent performance increase over its 2-D chips. Since the fins and their gates are vertical, more transistors can be packed close together. Eventually, designers will be able to make taller fins, aiming for even better performance.

“It will give product designers the flexibility to make current devices smarter and wholly new ones possible,” said Mark Bohr, a senior fellow at Intel.

More than 6 million 22-nm Tri-Gate transistors could fit inside the period at the end of this sentence, according to the company. (If you zoom in, who knows how many could fit!)

The new transistors will be integrated into Ivy Bridge-based Intel Core processors by the end of this year, which consumers will be able to get in 2012, Intel said.

Plenty of other chip designers have been talking about 3-D chips — just last month, we saw a 2-D reprogrammable one designed to behave as if it was a 3-D one. But Intel has taken it a step further by figuring out how to mass-produce them.

It’s technically 3-D because the switches are vertical and horizontal, but the transistors are not stacked, allowing electrons to flow in three dimensions — that’s a holy Grail of microprocessor design. But a new circuit design that allows more transistors on tinier spaces certainly sounds like a major breakthrough.

[IBM via PC Magazine]

Intel is not to be counted out of the smartphone battle yet, as its chips are headed to 35 tablets (including some already available) and “premier” smartphone vendors in 2011, Reuters reports based on comments from the company’s CEO Paul Otelinni.

The news follows on the heels of our report yesterday regarding Intel’s new tablet and netbook unit — the creation of which we found suspiciously quiet. Otellini says the tablets, including those from Dell, Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba, will roll out of the first half of 2011. Smartphones running Intel’s Medfield chip will land in the second half of next year.

Intel’s pursuit of smartphones is “a marathon, not a sprint”, Otelinni said. The company isn’t slowing down after the release of the first Medfield chip. Otellini added that Intel’s second-generation Medfield chip for smartphones is already being tested by customers and is expected to ship towards the end of 2011 and early 2012.

I suppose a marathon is a good analogy for Intel’s strategy — except Intel’s competitors already have several years ahead of the company in this particular race. What good is positioning its strategy as a marathon, when it’s clear the company was just running in place as its competitors passed it by?

Tags: Atom, chips, CPUs, Medfield, smartphones, tablets

Companies: Intel

People: Paul Otellini

Now, Intel is promising secret "pillow-proof" technology to prevent this overheating.

Details are scarce at this point, but we're ready.

[The Register]

How will your phone climb out of your pocket and into your head? Intel’s CTO Justin Rattner thinks that, by combining the geolocation already standard in smartphones with data from sources (the microphone, the camera, the gyro, etc.), phones could figure out a lot more about you. For instance, gyro data could tell if you’re taking an easygoing stroll or if you’re rushing. Judging by time, noise levels, and even things like breathing, your phone could know if you are asleep or awake.

By logging this data, your phone could learn a lot about your routine: when you typically sleep and when you wake up, when you generally perform your morning and evening commutes, places you frequent, what news you like to read on your mobile device, or what coffee shop is your favorite. By learning how you live, it could then offer you advice, move your news apps to your home screen during your a.m. bus commute, or perhaps even notify you when that Starbucks near your office that you frequent is giving away free free non-fat half-caff lattes (because that’s your favorite, and your phone knows it).

Mood-sensing phones are pure concept for now, but Rattner has suggested publicly that context-aware computing will begin to emerge in Intel products in the “not-too-distant future.” The company has already demonstrated a television remote that knows who is holding it by learning how different members of a household grasp it, learning each viewer’s entertainment likes and dislikes as well.

Networked with a phone that knows where you’ve been, what news you’re already heard about, and how you’re feeling, soon your TV could know if you’re in the mood for Monday Night Football or a quiet night catching up on Gossip Girl. And stop trying to act like you don’t like Gossip Girl. Your phone told us so.

[International Business Times]

Intel demostrated a new very interesting prototype of Tablet PC called UrbanMax. Gadget remids HP tc1100 and HTC Shift. UrbanMax has 11 inches display, keyboard, optical mose and digitizer, processor Core 2 Duo.