Intel Penryn QX9650

The Intel Penryn is the first 45nm processor to enter the market. This is a significant milestone for the engineering community, not only due to the small process lithography, but also because of the implementation of high K gate dielectrics. Intel claims that this new development will deliver more than a 20 percent improvement in transistor switching speed, and reduce transistor gate leakage by over 10 fold. The design improves on their previous 65nm technology. While it has more than 410 million transistors, which is about twice the density of the previous generation, it is just over 30% smaller. It has up to 50% larger L2 cache and improved energy efficiency.