IBM Could Have Created The Most Powerful Chip ever
Technology is all about who can make the biggest advancements first. At the pace that computers and our reliance on computer programs is evolving, companies have been working tirelessly to try and make something that can keep up with the data consumption the average person goes through. IBM is looking like it has potentially made an enormous stride that could have incredible benefits to your average technology user. The most recently developed IBM computer chip was produced by researchers at the SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science, and it comes denser. Often, computer chips used in our devices are manufactured at 14 or 22 nanometer density. The new IBM computer chip is part of a new 7-nanometer generation.
How Was This Small Computer Chip Created?
Computer chips are most frequently created using pure silicon. But IBM understood the importance of going further than just silicon to make strides in smaller, denser chips. The team behind the new IBM computer chip decided to go about things differently in their attempt to shrink the size down. They utilized a mixture of silicon and germanium to create the channel transistors. In order to etch required microscopic patterns into the IBM computer chip, they also used EUV, or extreme ultraviolet lithography. Though an incredibly detailed process, it allowed the IBM computer chip to be as dense as they needed. And dense it is! After all, seven nanometers is approximately the size of one human red blood cell. And, if you check the width of an average human hair, it’s actually 100,000 times smaller than that!
What Does This Mean For the Future of Technological Devices?
Well, if the new IBM computer chip is going to be as successful as they predict, your phone, computer, or tablet could get a lot faster! Granted, don’t get excited for it just yet. There’s still work to be done on the IBM computer chip before it’s palatable for any of your devices. Still, faster phones and computers that are more energy efficient could be coming if this proves effective. It could be the beginning of a new era of computer technology.
