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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Freedom Fighter who wrote (68929)	10/11/1999 10:16:00 AM
From: gnuman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Intel Scientist Sees Chip Size, Design Limits - NYT This poses some interesting questions for the PC industry. Since it's inception, the industry has been one of rapid performance and functionality improvements at ever declining prices. Look's like that may be changing. <g> In an article in the journal Science, the Intel scientist, Paul A. Packan, says it is not clear whether the most common type of silicon transistor can be scaled down beyond the generation of chips that will begin to appear next year, because semiconductor engineers have not found ways around basic physical limits. "These fundamental issues have not previously limited the scaling of transistors," he wrote in the Sept. 24 issue. "There are currently no known solutions to these problems," he added, calling it "the most difficult challenge the semiconductor industry has ever faced." Dennis Allison, a Silicon Valley physicist and computer designer, said: "The fact that this warning comes from Intel's process group is really significant. This says that they see actual limits." nytimes.com dailynews.yahoo.com