IBM Beats The Rest of the World To 7nm Chips, But You'll Need to Wait For Them

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 9, 2015 @01:37AM from the out-of-the-big-blue dept.

Mickeycaskill writes: IBM's research division has successfully produced test chips containing 7nm transistors, potentially paving the way for slimmer, more powerful devices. The advance was made possible by using silicon-germanium instead of pure silicon in key regions of the molecular-size switches, making transistor switching faster and meaning the chips need less power. Most current smartphones use processors containing 14nm technology, with Qualcomm, Nvidia and MediaTek looking for ways to create slimmer chips. However, despite its evident pride, IBM is not saying when the 7nm technology will become commercially available. Also at ComputerWorld and The Register.

1 of 89 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Not sure.. by Virtucon · 2015-07-09 01:58 · Score: 4, Interesting

Yeah because IBM sold their FAB so they don't know when anybody will produce chips based on this 7nm technology. They'll be happy to license it to chip manufacturers, they just won't produce it themselves.

--
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"