It is not only Intel that transitions from 90 nm to 65 nm semiconductors. Texas Instruments (TI) is the second major manufacturer that has announced it is prepping a ramp of 65 nm production for a variety of its processors. According to a statement released this week, the firm "qualified" its 65 nm process technology just about 8 months after sampling a wireless baseband processor. Volume production is scheduled to begin early 2006, the firm said.

"In this business, building some sample parts is good, but the competitive advantage goes to the supplier who can first deliver millions of high quality products," commented Hans Stork, chief technology officer of TI on the firm's progress of implementing the next-generation production technology. Stork claims that 65 nm will significantly reduces leakage power from idle transistors, which indicates lower heat generation as well as lower power consumption of TI's future 65 nm processors: In combination with newly developed software, TI said that it can deliver up to a 1000 times reduction in power leakage, when compared to the 90 nm generation.

According to industry sources, Intel has been in 65 nm volume production for at least 3 months and is getting close to releasing a 65 nm version of today's Pentium D 800 processor as well as the next notebook CPU, which will be named "Core". AMD recently announced that it will partner with IBM to build 65 nm semiconductors.