Ramp as Quickly

as Possible to 45 nm

The first, and probably most important, job for AMD is to bring its chip manufacturing to 45 nanometers from the current 65-nm process. The switch will give the company's processors an additional performance boost—possibly as much as 20 percent—and allow the company to produce chips that use less power. The shrink will allow AMD to cram more processors onto a single wafer, lower production costs and raise profit.