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IBM presents the world's first 2 nm chips

IBM is cramming 50 billion transistors in each fingernail-sized chip. (Image Source: IBM)
IBM is cramming 50 billion transistors in each fingernail-sized chip. (Image Source: IBM)
IBM is using nanosheets in order to shrink transistors down to 2 nm, a technology that differs from the GaaFET approach that will be used by TSMC and Samsung by 2023. IBM's 2 nm chips are said to be 45% faster and 75% more energy-efficient than any current 7 nm EUV chip produced by TSMC. Each fingernail-sized chip produced on the 2 nm nodes can fit 50 billion transistors.

IBM is proving once again that it is still one of the prominent companies pushing for cutting edge technology advancements with the introduction of the world’s first 2 nm semiconductors. The breakthrough is years ahead of similar endeavors coming from TSMC and Samsung that expect to bring 2 nm nodes online by 2023. IBM’s 2 nm production process is said to achieve 45 percent increased performance and up to 75 percent lower energy use over the most advanced 7 nm nodes from TSMC.

In its press release, IBM includes a list with some of the benefits coming with the advent of the 2 nm tech:

  • Quadrupling cell phone battery life, only requiring users to charge their devices every four days
  • Slashing the carbon footprint of data centers, which account for one percent of global energy use. Changing all of their servers to 2 nm-based processors could potentially reduce that number significantly.
  • Drastically speeding up a laptop’s functions, ranging from quicker processing in applications, to assisting in language translation more easily, to faster internet access.
  • Contributing to faster object detection and reaction time in autonomous vehicles like self-driving cars.

Through the new 2 nm production process that uses nanosheets, chips the size of a fingernail can now fit up to 50 billion transistors. Increasing the number of transistors on a chip allows processor designers to add more ccre-level innovations to boost the computation capabilities for AI, cloud computing, and hardware-enforced security and encryption.

TSMC and Samsung will be using an alternative to nanosheets called gate-all-around FET. This approach will require less money to produce, but it will probably not be as efficient as IBM’s 2 nm nodes, which will be used for industrial and aerospace-grade hardware, anyway.

 

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Nanosheet technology (Image Source: IBM)
Nanosheet technology (Image Source: IBM)

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Bogdan Solca, 2021-05- 6 (Update: 2021-05- 6)