Sources only a cat's whisker away from Intel's plans have told us that its future copper (Cu) technology will arrive far sooner than anyone has thought. The copper technology is included in the .13 micron P860 process, and Intel already has test structures and test chips functioning with copper interconnects and .13 micron lithography, the source claimed. Although not yet included in a processor product, the logic and memory structures are, however, built and tested electricity. "It works and it works damned well," the source said. "P860 is much further along than you might think and is being produced alongside P858 (Coppermine) technology". Another source said: "Coppermine is by no means a marketing ploy. I remember the name floating around long before IBM and Moto made their respective copper announcements and before copper was really being talked about at all. "While many are speculating that they'll do copper in .13 micron, there has also been a great deal of discussion about them switching to 12 inch wafers for .13 micron too. To do both in .13 micron, in Intel-speak, would be too "high risk". I expect them to roll out copper near the end of .18 micron with the introduction of Willamette - they may have to in order to keep power levels down and hit the frequency targets they're forecasting." He added: "It's pretty smart for them [Intel] to let IBM and Moto do all the R&D on copper, wait for that info to filter back through the likes of Applied Materials and then implement copper." ®