Top news in May

Feature articles | May 31, 2021

While 5nm chips tape out this month, designs are starting at 3nm, with a 2nm and a path to 1nm highlighted. A $500m deal highlights the shift away from the mobile phone, while Eben Upton of raspberry Pi details the facts behind the current shortagesRead More

By Nick Flaherty

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As the world’s leading governmentsprepare to meet in the UKnext week, the chip supply crisis is at the top of the agenda. While the demand from customers is at the7海里和16/22nm节点, the focus for new chips is 5nm and chip designers are focussing on the 3nm process node that will be in production towards the end of next year.

Mobile firms tape out ARMv9 chip on 5nm

While we chart the tapeout of the latest ARM chips at 5nm, the EDA vendors this month were making sure the industry knows that the tools are now becoming available for 3nm. This is accelerating the delivery of IP at 3nm, which has previously lagged behind, but that is not longer viable. European designers are at the forefront of delivering the latest IP that will monitor the performance of those 3nm chips both during development and out in the field.

Synopsys moves Moortec PVT sensor to 3nm

This month also saw the first chip nominally on a 2nm process. The development at IBM provides the densities of a 2nm chip using a new transistor structure with existing 5nm process technology. Similarly researchers at MIT and TSMC have identified bismuth as a material that can be used for the 1nm process node.

Beyond conventional silicon, the advent of quantum computing and ways to deliver this with photonic systems at room temperature is also a key area of interest.

Breakthrough for room temperature optical quantum computing

The $500m deal to buy a UK-based developer of holographic displays for smart glasses may seem to be part of a boom, but it is part of a wider trend. Technology companies are now looking at the display technologies that will replace the mobile phone as the dominant communications technology.

The demand for technology has also impacted on many areas, not least Raspberry Pi. Ebon Upton of the Raspberry Pi Foundation details the drives behind the current shortages of the popular single board computer.