Intel promises super-fast machines

Computer chip maker Intel said this week it has created a system of connecting computer chips to the rest of the computer that opens the way for super-fast machines now envisioned by science fiction.

The technology will help create computers that are 10 times faster than today's fastest machines, enabling processors that contain more than one billion transistors.

The complex technology, known as bumpless build-up layer (BBUL) packaging, involves the myriad of small electrical connections between a computer's silicon chip - the brain of a computer - and the rest of the machine.

That web of wire connections is known as a "package."

Silicon chips have been rapidly increasing in power, and they are now running into a bottleneck in the package that restricts the speed that the data is passed to other parts of the computer, including the hard drive and network connections.

That passing of data through this separate package also saps electrical power from the chip, further decreasing its computing power.

Intel's BBUL packaging, instead of being a separate component, will actually be incorporated into the silicon chip, allowing data to flow more easily to other computer components using less power.

The results, Intel researchers believe, will be computers that will interact with humans in more natural ways, including voice recognition and commands, abilities that require enormous computer processing speeds.

"In order to deliver the applications that could once only be considered science fiction, we will need to create processors that are much more powerful than those we have today," said Mr Gerald Marcyk, director of Intel's components research lab, in a statement.

"The development of BBUL technology will allow us to deliver the performance of billion-transistor processors to computers users. It is something that current packaging technology just can't handle"

Computers using BBUL will run at speeds exceeding 20 GHz. Current commercial machines run up to about 2 GHz. Intel says BBUL will be available in about five years.

The company said it had not yet determined if it would license the technology.

Intel is one of the Republic's largest high-tech employers, employing almost 3,400 staff. Its main operations are in Leixlip, Co Kildare.

During the summer it introduced a voluntary redundancy scheme, which was heavily oversubscribed by its employees - it had sought 170 redundancies.