1. Intel’s New Processor Architecture (The High-K gate)

2. What we will be covering: • What is a transistor? • What is “Leakage” • Why is the High-K gate so great? • The Nehalem Project (Core i7s) • High-K gates • 45nm technology • Integration of memory controller Andrew Egelhofer

3. What is a transistor? • Does two things: • Acts as switches for digital logic – allows them to control a strong signal with a weak signal. • And amplifies the signal • Critical for cascading logic gates. Without amplification we would only be able to send it through ~3 gates before the signal becomes too “noisy”. • In the world of digital logic, AND and OR do not exist. Only NAND and NOR and NOT do. • You can create AND and OR by combining NAND and NOR and NOT. Andrew Egelhofer

4. What does a NOT gate look like? • NOT: Andrew Egelhofer

5. What does NAND look like? • NAND: Andrew Egelhofer

6. What does NOR look like? • NOR: Andrew Egelhofer

7. This brings us to leakage • Example: NOT gate. • Even though A is high (+5 V) there is still some current to F. • This ties into thresholds Andrew Egelhofer

8. New High-K gates • "High-k" stands for high dielectric constant. • “Old” transistors use silicon dioxide to make their transistors. • “New” High-K transistors use hafnium dioxide for their transistors. • Because high-k gate dielectrics can be several times thicker, they reduce gate leakage by over 100 times compared to “old” transistors. • Runs cooler: cooler = more power. Andrew Egelhofer

9. Andrew Egelhofer

10. Core i7s • High-K gates allows intel to pack more transistors into a die. • More room for more stuff. Like a memory controller. • Integrate memory controller directly onto the processor. • AMD already has been doing this for 5 years • Faster transfer time between memory and processor now (no more Front Side Bus) • No more intermediate device. Andrew Egelhofer

11. What is Front side Bus? Andrew Egelhofer

12. Andrew Egelhofer

13. References • Intel: http://www.intel.com/technology/silicon/high-k.htm • Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor • Our Book: Computer Architecture and Organization: An Integrated Approach Andrew Egelhofer