“This 40 percent achievement will eventually industrialize itself in AI workflows that require higher bandwidth and higher efficiency,” Gambetta said.
A roadmap for sub-1 nanometer nodes
As a chip technology research company, IBM does not produce commercial chips that can produce results AI data centers or consumer devices. Instead, IBM is partnering with semiconductor companies such as Rapidus in Japan mass production previous generation 2-nanometer node chips based on nanosheet architecture or commercialize related technology in another collaboration with Samsung in South Korea.
Other companies followed IBM’s pioneering work without any direct collaboration. For example, Taiwan’s TSMC independently developed nanosheet transistors for its own property 2 nanometer node technology.
“Nanosheet has become the basis of the next generation of transistor scale,” he said Huiming BuVice President of IBM Semiconductors Global R&D and IBM Research during a media briefing. “Today, nanosheet is accepted by all leading foundries for most 3-nanometer chips and all 2-nanometer chips.”
IBM declined to name specific companies it may partner with to commercialize its newest sub-1 nanometer node technology. But Bu expects that commercial chips made at sub-1 nanometer junctions and incorporating the latest nanostack architecture could be in production within the next five years, and possibly within a decade.
“It will replace nanosheet as today’s mainstream in leading foundries, be it CPUs or GPUs,” he said. “Within ten years, it’s going to be another major area that we’re exploring and helping to transform the industry.”
