IBM says it has made a significant breakthrough in computer processors by creating a 2nm chip in its test lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The process used to make computer chips is measured in nanometres (nm) – with a lower number usually signifying a leap forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBM claims its test chip can improve performance by 45% over current 7nm commercially available products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is also more energy efficient – using 75% less energy to match current performance, IBM said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It claims the tech could “quadruple” mobile phone battery life, and phones might only need to be charged every four days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The computer chip industry used to use nanometres – one billionth of a metre – to measure the physical size of transistors. Today, a lower “nm” number is widely seen as a marketing term to describe new generations of the technology, leading to better performance and lower power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBM says its 2nm process can cram 50 billion transistors into “a chip the size of a fingernail” – up from 30 billion when it announced its 5nm breakthrough in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The end result should be another performance bump for computers in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
‘A breakthrough’
Current high-end desktop chips based on the 7nm process, such as AMD’s Ryzen processors, did not become widely available until 2019 – four years after IBM announced it had cracked the 7nm process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But mainstream commercial chip-makers such as Intel and TSMC – which makes AMD processors – have already said they plan to build ultra-low nm chip plants in the next several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This can be considered as a breakthrough,” said Peter Rudden, research director at market intelligence firm IDC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We have seen semiconductor manufacturers moving from 14nm to 10nm to 7nm, with 7nm being a real challenge for some,” he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said IBM’s new process could be used for AI uses that today need a second piece of tech – such as a powerful graphics card- to handle some tasks. The increased power efficiency could be useful in personal devices, while increased performance would benefit huge datacentres, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This also sends a message to the IT industry that IBM continues to be a hardware research powerhouse.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chip wars
IBM said the test chip for its 2nm process was built at its Albany research lab in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The news comes amid an international shortage of computer chips and a bid to shake up chip manufacturing to rely less on major foundries in China and Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Car manufacturers have been forced to suspend production due to the lack of computer parts; smartphone makers have warned product releases could be affected; and high-end computer components such as graphics cards are difficult to find and selling for high prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why iPhone 12 marks dawn of a new chip technology
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On Thursday, Nintendo joined the chorus of concerned companies, saying the chip shortage was affecting production of its hugely popular Nintendo Switch console.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The worldwide shortage led US President Joe Biden to convene a special industry summit on the shortage. In the UK, the government has intervened in the acquisition of chip designer Arm by tech giant Nvidia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Intel’s chief executive has announced a $20bn (\u00a314.6bn) investment in two new plants in the US, telling the BBC that having 80% of the world chip supply in Asia is not a good idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IBM says it has made a significant breakthrough in computer processors by creating a 2nm chip in its test lab. The process used to make computer chips is measured in nanometres (nm)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n