IBM seems to be well poised in its quest to win the processor nanometer race with the company already setting its eyes on the 22nm manufacturing process. With peers Intel and AMD still toying with 45nm chips, the next pit stop based on the 32nm manufacturing process too seems a distant outcome. Even the official Intel roadmap sees the 32nm process to be the mainstream by 2011 only. Intel has only started shipping 45nm-based processors.
The sudden shift to 22nm by IBM can be attributed to its recent partnership with Mentor Graphics who would be helping IBM to master the “Computational Scaling” process, which is instrumental in making the shift to 22nm process a comparatively easy procedure. In simple words, what they did was to overcome current limitations of lithography methods and etching processes by using mathematical techniques and software based manipulation methods. With IBM not having to resort to the classical “re-inventing the wheel” type of research on designing the processor ground up, the end result could be a faster than expected adoption of the 22nm process. And who knows, Intel and AMD might just have to revise their respective roadmaps!
These processors from IBM, apart from doing their duty with servers, could also find its way into PDAs and power-efficient cell phones of the future. Not long ago, in August IBM and partners had designed and created a method to develop SRAM (Static RAM) memory cells on a 22nm platform, which is considered a major step forward for ensuring a fully functional 22nm platform. As of now, there is no confirmation on the probable “launch” of the platform. What we do know is that IBM’s 32nm platform is set to make its debut in 2009.
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