Tri-Gate, Intel, ARM, Mobile Will tri-gate play an important role in the Intel-ARM tussle?

Rivalries between companies have a charm of their own. For many years, Intel v. AMD was the talk of the town, and then it became Microsoft v. Google. The most interesting rivalry today is, of course, Intel v. ARM. After Intel's tri-gate transistor announcement, I was therefore not surprised to see these news articles:



eWeek
3-D transistor will indeed help Intel beat back ARM, iHS iSuppli says

xbit Labs
ARM Not Afraid of Intel's 22nm/Tri-Gate Process Technology - Company.

Wired Revolution
Intel’s 3D tri-gate Transistor Redesign Brings Huge Efficiency Gains

At the moment, it certainly looks as though ARM will go planar at the 22-nm node, while Intel will go tri-gate. To judge if tri-gate offers Intel a significant advantage, a few questions need to be answered:

•   Intel announced that their 22-nm tri-gate transistor consumed 50 percent lower power when compared to their 32-nm planar transistor. But what are the power savings for a 22-nm tri-gate transistor when compared to a 22-nm planar transistor?
•   How much chip power can one save by using a 22-nm tri-gate transistor in a microprocessor instead of a 22-nm planar transistor? Is it 10 percent? Or is it 30 percent? Or is it 50 percent?

It is not difficult to get estimates for these. Let’s take a look.   

Transistor-level calculations



Tri-Gate, Intel, ARM, Mobile Will tri-gate play an important role in the Intel-ARM tussle?