IBM to change everything in thin laptops, iPods, iPhones, etc.

[63dot]

At work we were talking about Moore's law hitting a stopping point, due to technology and R&D finances and out of nowhere these guys come up with a working 7 nanometer chip (which can't cheaply be done in silicon technology).

For regular laptops and desktops, who really cares about going to 7 nanometers but the high tech market is so much more into thin/light laptops and smartphones so we want more with less and 7 nanometers would be the first major hurdle past meat and potatoes silicon technology:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/09/t...hips-more-powerful-than-any-in-existence.html

What I can envision, at least, is an iPhone with the power of the best Macbook Pro, but in about two years as opposed to five years from now. But I am not sure that IBM can or wants to bring it to this market. I remember back when IBM in partnership with Motorola made the first working 1 GHz chip but failed to make it cheap and available and AMD put it to market price first. Power Mac fans were thinking we could leave Wintel in the dust and underprice them, too but it didn't go that way.

 

[cerberusss]

Yeah, I'm curious as well. And besides the usage of expensive germanium (if I recall correctly), there will also be the question of a good enough yield. The problem with 14 nm seems to be about getting a good enough yield.

And then there's related problems; a guy I know works at ASML. He told me that one of the problems in lithography currently is the effects of low-frequency background noise, i.e. the 50-60 Hz rumblings of everyday civilization. They're trying to predict that, so that the effects can be countered. (Not sure if I understood/worded correctly, please take this with a grain of salt).

Interesting times