Intel Shoots for Billion-Transistor Processors

Intel just let us know that it has developed a new semiconductor packaging technology that could lead to processors that have more than 1 billion transistors that are 10 times faster than the fastest processors today. The company's "Bumpless Build-Up Layer" (BBUL) packaging "grows" the package around the silicon, rather than manufacturing the processor die separately and then bonding it to the package, resulting in thinner, higher-performance processors that consume less power. Intel thinks it can begin making BBUL packaging available for commercial products in the next five to six years.

The BBUL packaging can also support multiple chips in the same package. Packaging houses the processor die, supplies it with electricity and acts as the interface between the silicon and the rest of the computer system while protecting it from dirt and physical dangers. Packaging also plays a key role in delivering processor performance, since it takes data into and out of the silicon core. According to Intel, the first step in building high-density, super-fast processors is the design of fast small transistors. In June, Intel scientists showed off transistors at 1.5 Terahertz (1,500 Gigahertz), and featuring structures as thin as three atomic layers. The second step is the development of advanced lithography so that the transistors can be built on a sliver of silicon, which Intel and other companies have been working toward with Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. The third step is to develop a processor package that can handle the transistor density and speed of these processors without slowing them down, which is the gist of BBUL technology research. BBUL packaging eliminates use of solder bumps and instead uses high-speed copper connections to connect the die to the different layers of the package. The approach reduces the thickness of the processor package and allows the processor to run at a lower voltage.

Using BBUL packaging, Intel could also create multi-chip processors, such as server processors with two silicon cores and other supporting silicon chips embedded into a single package, which sounds a bit similar to the efforts of Alpine Microsystems . Intel plans to release technical details of BBUL at the Advanced Metallization Conference in Montreal.