Interviewed at the conference, Steve Polzin, chief platform architect in the Computation Products Group at AMD, said his company in time also would be using 45nm transistor manufacturing technology. AMD has access to developments such as this through its participation in the ASTI alliance with Sony, Toshiba, and IBM. AMD is the "A" in that abbreviation.

"We have access to very similar technology that we'll be able to use in 45nm," Polzin said. "It's a weapon in our arsenal."'

Polzin would not commit on a timeframe for when AMD would use 45nm, except to say that the company would do so "when it makes sense." AMD currently uses 65nm technology in its Opteron CPU line.

"Pushing technology for technology's sake is not what we do," said Polzin. The 45nm technology will be applicable from systems ranging from laptops to data centers, he said.

Intel plans to have its 45nm chips in production in the second half of this year. But Intel does not have a big jump on AMD, said analyst Mary Olsson, of . The 45nm systems will not be heavily used for three to four years, Olsson said.