The term interconnect refers to the metal used as a conductor between the transistors in a semiconductor. IBM has used copper interconnect in some of its microprocessors since late 1998. Copper offers advantages over the aluminum interconnect found in almost all of today's semiconductors. Because copper is a better conductor of electricity, chips can run at higher clock speeds without overheating or experiencing transmission delays . This Question of the Day explains why microprocessors have these problems when they run above their maximum rated speeds.
Clock speed is one key factor in microprocessor performance.
Previous microprocessors featured as much as 512KB of L2 cache, but it was not located on the microprocessor chip itself. Caches improve performance by keeping data closer to the microprocessor that will process the data. When performing a task, the microprocessor looks for the data it needs in the caches first, beginning with the L1 cache, which is always on the chip, then looking in the L2 cache. Inc. All rights reserved.