IBM Makes Chips 2nm Smaller Than Rice Granules

Illustration of the IBM chipset (dock. IBM)

JAKARTA - Technology company IBM made history by introducing a 2nm chip. That means it's the smallest fabricated chip in the world.

Considering, the current chip size has a 5nm fabrication that has been embedded in smartphones and laptops. The smaller size allows IBM to immerse more than 333 million transistors into the human fingertip-sized chip.

As reported by The Verge, smaller sizes offer huge advantages in performance and battery life. IBM says its 2nm chip is projected to achieve 45 percent higher performance or could save energy 75 percent lower, than today's most advanced 7nm chip.

By comparison, IBM has defeated the TSMC-developed chip using its 5nm fabrication process, featuring approximately 173 million transistors per square millimeter (MTr/mm 2). While Samsung's 5nm chip has a feature of about 127 MTr /mm 2.

While it sounds great, it's important to remember that IBM's 2nm chip is still a concept. Moreover, the processor built on the new 2nm node will launch in a few more years.

Known today, TSMC and Samsung are still in the process of producing 5nm chips. Intel is still struggling to get its 7nm nodes out.

Even TSMC doesn't expect to reach 2nm anytime soon. The company currently plans to begin the initial production of the 4nm chip process by the end of the year, with mass production by 2022.