22-nanometer

Intel to spend billions on new fab, plant upgrades

Intel is pledging to spend between $6 billion and $8 billion to build a new chip manufacturing plant and upgrade its existing fabrication plants in Arizona and Oregon.

The influx of cash will allow Intel's new and current fab plants to put more muscle behind building the chipmaker's next-generation, 22-nanometer microprocessors, which could eventually power sleeker devices that deliver higher performance and longer battery life at a cheaper cost.

Intel's first microprocessors built on the 22-nanometer process, codenamed "Ivy Bridge," will be in production in late 2011, the chipmaker said today.

Besides kicking in money … Read more

IBM looks to DNA to sustain Moore's Law

As chip geometries get infinitesimally small, IBM is looking to DNA to make the manufacture of future chips feasible.

On Monday, IBM researchers and collaborator Paul W.K. Rothemund, of the California Institute of Technology, announced an advancement of a method to arrange DNA origami structures on surfaces compatible with today's semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

"The cost involved in shrinking (chip) features to improve performance is a limiting factor in keeping pace with Moore's Law and a concern across the semiconductor industry," said Spike Narayan, a manager in the Science & Technology division of IBM Research, in … Read more

IBM pushes toward 22-nanometer chips

IBM is tapping into its computing know-how to get to the next-generation 22-nanometer chip technology.

Generally, the smaller the geometries, the faster and more power efficient the chip becomes. Both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are moving their processor lines from 65-nanometer to 45-nanometer technology. (AMD, which does joint chip R&D with IBM, is slated to begin doing this in the fourth quarter.)

After 45nm, comes 32nm, which doesn't present any great manufacturing process hurdles. But 22nm is a different story. And IBM is trying to lead the way--ahead of Intel.

At its most basic, photolithography--the conventional … Read more

IBM: It takes a consortium to build 22-nanometer chips

IBM's research facility in Albany, N.Y., is working toward the ability to build chip features based on 22-nanometer manufacturing technology--and drawing expertise from a diverse group of engineers and scientists.

When future generations of chips reach feature sizes in the realm of a billionth of a meter, IBM says, it will take a global village of chip companies, including Advanced Micro Devices, Samsung, Singapore-based Chartered Semiconductor, and Germany-based Infineon, to carry out development and manufacturing.

Currently, IBM and its partners are in the initial stages of 45-nanometer production. (Intel is already in commercial production of 45-nanometer processors.) This … Read more