GlobalFoundries is a member of the research group that successfully produced the new 7nm node chips, and it will serve as IBM’s exclusive processor manufacturer for the next 10 years. Generally, the smaller the technology, the faster the chip’s potential, and the more compact it can be.
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Today’s chips from the likes of Intel and Samsung are built using transistors that are 14 nanometres in size.
The development is the work of a joint project between IBM Research.
The move was made official in IBM’s quarterly earnings figures released in October last year, and will see IBM ridding itself of a business unit that has become more trouble than it’s worth.
Intel’s next line of processing chips that plans to use the 10nm process (dubbed Cannonlake) is delayed once again until September 2016, which suggests that the company could be struggling to keep up with its own Tick-Tock roadmap.
IBM has announced that its research division has produced test chips with functional transistors manufactured using a 7nm production process, making it the first in the semiconductor industry to produce working chips of this kind.
Indeed, at one point it looked like the famous Moore’s Law – which predicts that the number of processor transitors will double every two years – would finally be broken at the current 14nm level (or just beyond it at 10nm). The firm said earlier this year that it is still researching options for 7nm technologies.
Mukesh Khare, IBM’s head of semiconductor research, told Quartz that it won’t be easy.
We do know that it is Intel that usually gets crowned for being the forerunners in this field but if and when IBM gets to launch the 7 nanometer chip in the market it would definitely be a game changer for both companies – for better or worse.
The New York Times reports that the development is part of an effort to manufacture the most advanced computer chips in New York’s Hudson Valley, where IBM is investing $3 billion in a private-public partnership with New York State, GlobalFoundries, Samsung and equipment vendors. But IBM’s boffins think they can go even smaller than 7nm. “This announcement clarifies that staying on Moore’s Law is extremely hard”, he said.
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“Can we do 5 nanometer?” he asked.
