3.9 billion transistors on a chip

Altera, a specialist in FPGA - programmable chips - has announced that the next chip in the range, the Stratix V, will contain 3.9 billion transistors. The range, which comprises several chips, will be etched into 28 nm "HP" (High Performance) by TSMC and is designed for data transfers. Altera designed the chip market dedicated to high-speed transfers, such as Ethernet cards 100 gigabits per second, management systems based on fiber optics, high-end video systems, etc..

The advantage of programmable chips in this application is obvious: it can offer powerful devices without developing a dedicated chip, often too expensive for niche markets. Remains to be seen whether TSMC will arrive to take his time on the 28 nm, late on 40 nm has caused problems for many manufacturers.

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