[ExI] IBM's new 2-nm chips have transistors smaller than a strand of DNA

[BillK]

By Michael Irving   May 06, 2021

Quotes:
In a shining example of the inexorable march of technology, IBM has
unveiled new semiconductor chips with the smallest transistors ever
made. The new 2-nanometer (nm) tech allows the company to cram a
staggering 50 billion transistors onto a chip the size of a
fingernail.

The current industry standard is chips with 7-nm transistors, with
some high-end consumer devices, such as Apple’s M1 processors,
beginning to make the move to 5 nm. And experimental chips have shrunk
as small as 2.5 nm.

<https://newatlas.com/computers/ibm-2-nm-chips-transistors/>

IBM’s new chips pip them all, with transistors now measuring just 2 nm
wide – for reference, that's narrower than a strand of human DNA.
That, of course, means the tiny transistors can be squeezed onto a
chip far more densely than ever before, boosting the device’s
processing power and energy efficiency in the process. The company
claims that, when compared to current 7-nm chips, the new 2-nm chips
can reach 45 percent higher performance or 75 percent lower energy
use.

It’s likely that we won’t see these 2-nm chips in consumer electronics
until 2023 at the earliest, so for now go enjoy the benefits of the
still-impressive 5-nm chips.
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BillK