IBM Unveils First 7 NM Chip
IBM announced this week that it has made the first 7 nanometer chip. The 7 nanometer chip can hold upto 20 billion transistors. This is the first 7NM chip ever made and has been built by IBM in partnership with the SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Samsung and GlobalFoundries. The development of the chip began in 2014 as a part of IBM’s $3 billion research program. The research of the program was carried out by SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.
The key factor being the size of the chip : IBM produces these next generation chips in two sizes , one 10 NM and another 7 NM. The 10-nanometer chip is capable of improving power-performance ratio over the current 14-nanometer chip by 40-50 percent, while the seven-nanometer variant can improve over the 10-nanometer variant by 50 percent.
However these chips will not cost cheap , as IBM has already invested about $3 billion dollars.Mass production of the chips is also not likely too began soon , but IBM has set a new competition in the market.The chip was produced with Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV), a process for “drawing” transistor patterns on wafers with ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet light has a far thinner wavelength than the light sources used for existing lithography systems.
IBM has announced that the commercial use will be in some time in 2017. IBM has announced a direct competition for Intel and forced all chip manufactures to make the chip's smaller and more powerful. As and as companies are making chip's smaller , more and more mobility devices will come forward. As IBM has a start on the nanometer Intel will also gear up for something similar or even smaller.
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