SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – Intel Corp. announced Monday it has created a memory chip using transistors that are considerably smaller than those powering today’s state-of-the-art chips, allowing for more memory and greater performance.

As a result of their smaller size, more of the tiny switches can be packed into a single piece of silicon without having to increase the size of the chip. Products built with the new technology are on track for delivery in 2005, Intel said.

The gate – or switching mechanism – of each transistor on the new chip is about 30 percent smaller than those in use today, Intel said. About 100 of them could fit inside a human red blood cell.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel and other semiconductor companies have thrived on the ability to pack more performance into their chips. But with each generation, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the pace as the tinier and tinier transistors test the physical limits of silicon.

“As we scale to smaller dimensions, our job gets tougher,” said Mark Bohr, an Intel senior fellow.

In fact, chips built with the current transistors saw several delays from many chip manufacturers as they struggled with issues such as heat and power loss.

Intel developed so-called sleep transistors that shut off the electrical current to areas of a chip that aren’t being used. As a result, power consumption drops – something that will decrease heat generation and help battery-powered devices last longer between charges.

News of the new transistors contradicts fears that the semiconductor industry’s pace of development has been slowing recently.

If the devices are released by 2005, as planned, it would keep with a famous forecast by Intel founder Gordon Moore. In the late 1960s, he predicted the number of transistors on a chip would roughly double every two years. “Moore’s Law,” as the prediction, is known, has held true since then.

“Intel continues to meet the increasing challenges of scaling by innovating with new materials, processes and device structures,” said Sunlin Chou, general manager of Intel’s Technology and Manufacturing Group.