Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. announced today that they will develop a first pilot line using 450-millimeter wafers, which is to be operational by 2012.

"The transition to 450mm wafers will benefit the entire ecosystem of the IC ( integrated circuit) industry, and Intel, Samsung, TSMC will work together with suppliers and other semiconductor manufacturers to actively develop 450mm capability," Cheong-Woo Byun, senior vice president of memory manufacturing operation center at Samsung, said in a statement.

The current most advanced chip-making process uses 300-millimeter wafers, and plants using 200-millimeter wafers are still operational. Under the new wafer dimensions, which has a surface of approximately 636,173 square millimeters, 2.25 more processors can be fit on a single wafer. This means that a stunning 6,000 Intel Wolfdale 45-nm Core 2 Duo CPUs could fit on a single 450-mm wafer.

"Increasing cost due to the complexity of advanced technology is a concern for the future," said Mark Liu, TSMC's senior vice president of its Advanced Technology Business, in a statement.

Intel and Cray recently established a multi-year agreement for the development of high-performance computing, which “will result in HPC systems that will help solve some of the world’s most complex scientific, engineering and humanitarian challenges,” the two partners said in a statement.

Intel and Cray will be working on advancing HPC on Intel microprocessors and bring future innovative technologies to Cray server systems. The results of the agreement between the two industry leaders won’t be available on the market before 2011 or 2012, which means they will profit from the new 450-mm wafers.