It must be midnight somewhere; the embargos are expiring. Personally, the BBC is the last place I'd look for coverage of processors; you'd probably be better off waiting a few hours for AnandTech or something.
No, they're called "Tri-Gate" transistors if you want to nit. FinFET is an industry term, not one Intel uses for this particular process. Both/either are examples of 3D transistor structure, so the linked article isn't wrong.
Silicon is here to stay for the foreseeable future, and for a very simple reason. While we have many advanced possibilities with germanium or carbon nano-tubes or other such advanced processes, silicon is still the cheapest by such a magnitude that it wins out in performance per dollar.
I'm not saying it will always be that way, but rather there is a large gap so, barring incredible breakthroughs, silicon's got at least a decade or so left.
Why couldn't we have incredible breakthroughs tomorrow? Well, we could, but they've been working on non-silicon tech for at least thirty years now- and we are still using silicon.
My bet is on the Pro and Air lines converging. There is not much reason for an optical drive anymore in the Pros and, without it, they could be thinner.
I expect the 13" MBP to vanish or be turned into an Air with a spinning metal disk and beefier battery and GPU.
16 comments
[ 1.7 ms ] story [ 55.1 ms ] thread(Also, they're called FinFETs.)
Why couldn't we have incredible breakthroughs tomorrow? Well, we could, but they've been working on non-silicon tech for at least thirty years now- and we are still using silicon.
Are you quoting some really obscure science-fiction story?
BTW, wouldn't a nano-micro-something be a femto-something?
I expect the 13" MBP to vanish or be turned into an Air with a spinning metal disk and beefier battery and GPU.
I don't think an Air should have a discrete GPU though. Ivy Bridge's IGPU is better and I'd much rather see it being able to stand alone upon that.