IBM unveils world’s first technology for AI chips smaller than 1 nanometer

IBM has unveiled the world’s first technology capable of manufacturing microchips smaller than 1 nanometer. This comes as tech giants race to build more powerful hardware capable of handling increasingly massive artificial intelligence (AI) workloads.

Breaking the boundaries of Moore’s Law

For decades, chipmakers have tried to squeeze more computing power into smaller spaces – a trend known as Moore’s Law. IBM’s new 0.7-nanometer (or 7 angstrom) architecture positions the company to compete with contract manufacturing giants like Intel and TSMC, as per a report by news agency Reuters.To put the achievement in perspective, Intel just recently announced that its 1.8-nanometer process had entered “risk production” testing.

IBM's new technology shrinks components even further, packing nearly 100 billion transistors onto a surface the size of a fingernail. Compared to IBM’s milestone 2-nanometer chip released in 2021, this new architecture is claimed to offer 50% higher computing performance or 70% greater energy efficiency.

‘Nanostack’ 3D architecture: How IBM achieved this milestone

To achieve sub-1-nanometer sizes, IBM developed a proprietary transistor design called “nanostack”. Instead of laying transistors flat next to each other on a chip, the nanostack design layers them vertically in three dimensions.

“With our new nanostack architecture, we’re not just making smaller transistors, we’re reinventing how chips are built to deliver dramatically more power and energy efficiency,” said Jay Gambetta, director of IBM Research.Beyond raw processing power, the nanostack technology tackles a critical bottleneck in AI computing: memory. The new process shrinks static random-access memory (SRAM) circuits by a massive 40%.

This specific type of memory is highly coveted by the AI industry, and is utilised in Nvidia's new Groq chips and hardware from Cerebras Systems – both of whom currently rely entirely on TSMC for manufacturing. IBM estimates that commercial production using this technology could begin within the next five years. While IBM designs these cutting-edge blueprints, it does not operate its own commercial factories. The company has previously licensed its chip innovations to global manufacturers like Samsung and Japan's Rapidus.