The Dothan's New Features

90nm Process Technology

The Dothan processor will be manufactured on 300mm silicon wafers using the 90nm process with a low-k dielectric insulator. 90nm is currently the most advanced processing technology. It allows more transistors to be squeezed into the same amount of space.

The new low-k dialetrics will allow the chip to run faster while reducing its power consumption. The Dothan will not only feature a low-k dielectric insulator, it will also feature strained silicon substrate, copper interconnects as well as low-powered transistors.

Strained Silicon Process Technology

The strained silicon substrate is basically based on a stretched silicon lattice structure. This stretched lattice structure enables a faster flow of electrons. To stretch the silicon lattice, a film of silicon nitrite is deposited over the whole transistor at high temperatures. When cooled, the silicon nitrite will contract less than the silicon itself. This keeps the silicon in a 'stretched' condition. Hence, the term strained silicon.

2MB Power-Optimized L2 Cache

There isn't really much to be said here. With 2MB of L2 cache, things are bound to be faster, eh? The larger cache will reduce the memory latency, providing a big performance improvement.

What does Power-Optimized mean, you ask? Well, the Dothan has features that will help improve battery life. When it comes to the cache, it reduces power consumption by running the cache slightly slower than their desktop counterparts. In addition, Intel implemented special circuits and unspecified micro-architectural innovations to further reduce power consumption.

The new Intel 855GME chipset