Understanding chip-fabrication technology is like getting the facts on that other thing you became curious about when you were 12. Most people don't have anyone who really sits them down and explains it; they just kind of pick it up. Well, I can help you with the chip-making stuff. Listen to my podcast with Intel Senior Fellow Mark Bohr, who has been leading the development of the industry's first 45-nm processors, which will appear later this year when the quad-core Penryn ships.

Think of it as a 15-minute course that'll get you up to speed on the critical issues of modern chip manufacturing. Mark is unusually articulate; I ask a few questions, but mostly stay out of the way.

Listen to the podcast by clicking here.

(Alternatively, you can right-click and save the file to your desktop. To do this in Internet Explorer, after you right click, move your mouse over "Save Target As...," click, and save to your desktop. In Firefox, after you right click, select "Save Link As..." After the file download is complete, open it and listen to it in Windows Media Player.)

In the podcast, Bohr makes the point that 45 nm allows Intel to pack more transistors onto a given slice of silicon than was possible at 65 nm, and to run the resulting chips at lower power. Here are some highlights of the chat: