Watch out Intel…

IBM, which has enjoyed a cozy relationship with AMD, is looking well past 32nm and is setting its sights on 28 nanometers (nm). Expect chips to get smaller, faster and you guessed it… more energy efficient.

Preliminary results working with early access clients and partners indicate that the 28nm technology platform can provide a 40 percent performance improvement and a more than 20 percent reduction in power — all in a chip that is half the size — compared with 45nm technology. The high-k metal gate implementation allows one of the industry’s smallest SRAM cells at 0.120 square microns, with low minimum voltage operation and competitive performance, leakage and stability.

IBM’s partners in the high-k metal gate (HKMG) chipmaking effort include Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, GLOBALFOUNDRIES (an AMD spin-off), Infineon Technologies, Samsung Electronics, and STMicroelectronics. Given their progress so far, the group expects “early risk” production of 28nm processors to roll of the line in the second half of 2010.

Source: Press Release