IBM Creates the World’s First 2 nm Chip
WASHINGTON (Dispatches) - IBM has announced a breakthrough in integrated circuit design—the world’s first 2 nanometer process. IBM says its new process can produce CPUs capable of either 45 percent higher performances, or 75 percent lower energy use than modern 7 nm designs.
Intel’s current desktop processors are still laboring along at 14 nm, while the company struggles to complete a migration downward to 10 nm—and that its rivals are on much smaller processes, with the smallest production chips being Apple’s new M1 processors at 5 nm. What’s less clear is exactly what that means in the first place.
Originally, process size referred to the literal two-dimensional size of a transistor on the wafer itself—but modern 3D chip fabrication processes have made a hash of that. Foundries still refer to a process size in nanometers, but it’s a "2D equivalent metric” only loosely coupled to reality, and its true meaning varies from one fabricator to the next.
Intel’s current desktop processors are still laboring along at 14 nm, while the company struggles to complete a migration downward to 10 nm—and that its rivals are on much smaller processes, with the smallest production chips being Apple’s new M1 processors at 5 nm. What’s less clear is exactly what that means in the first place.
Originally, process size referred to the literal two-dimensional size of a transistor on the wafer itself—but modern 3D chip fabrication processes have made a hash of that. Foundries still refer to a process size in nanometers, but it’s a "2D equivalent metric” only loosely coupled to reality, and its true meaning varies from one fabricator to the next.