Intel is not holding back on letting the public know about significant future technologies, and--whereas many Intel employees are at a loss to understand how it is possible that they're able to talk about things they could not discuss just a few weeks ago--it's all good stuff for us.
In 2007, Intel is planning to be ramping to 45 nm production in at least two fabrication facilities, but what's even more interesting is that at least one of them may soon convert from 300 mm (11.8") wafers to 450 mm wafers (17.7") in 2008. These notably larger wafers increase literal surface area by 225%, with the potential to obtain over twice the number of chips per wafer. Add in that Intel will be at 45 nm, meaning each chip will be smaller still, and that's a tremendous number of potential product from each wafer. If the die size were to shrink down to 50 mm[SIZE=-2]2[/SIZE], that would equate to roughly 3,100 chips compared to 700 available today using 100 mm[SIZE=-2]2[/SIZE] on 300 mm wafers.
Those numbers represent a 400%+ increase in the number of potential products available from the processing of a single 450 mm wafer. That will be a significant advantage for Intel.
