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Taiwanese TSMC company has introduced a two-nanometer chip, mass production of which is scheduled to begin in the second half of this year.
The company believes that its chip will be a major step forward in improving the performance and efficiency of electronic devices. Currently, all modern gadgets use microchips, including toothbrushes, smartphones, computers, and household appliances Chips are made by technology for applying layers of electronic chips and etching substrate materials, mainly silicon. These chips contain billions of tiny transistors that control the flow of electricity.
The greater the number of transistors in a chip, the faster the speed of computing operations and the higher its power. Currently, the production of chips aimed at reducing their size and placing as many transistors as possible in them. Compared to TSMC’s previous 3nm chip, the new generation of 2-nm chips should provide 10-15% faster computing speeds at the same power level, or 20-30% lower power consumption at the same speed. Unlike 3nm chips, 2-nm chips have a 15% higher transistor density, which will make gadgets faster and more energy efficient.
TSMC’s cutting-edge microchips are used by other companies in a wide range of devices. The company manufactures Apple’s A-series processors, which are used in iPhones, iPads, and Macs, as well as NVidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs), which are used for machine learning and AI applications.
TSMC also manufactures AMD Ryzen and EPYC processors used by supercomputers around the world, and produces Qualcomm Snapdragon processors used in Samsung, Xiaomi, OnePlus and Google phones. Since 2020, TSMC has reduced the size of its own chips from 5 to 2 nanometers. Smartphones, laptops, and tablets with 2nm chips can benefit from better performance and longer battery life. This will lead to smaller, lighter devices without sacrificing power. The efficiency and speed of 2nm chips have the potential to improve artificial intelligence applications such as voice assistants, real-time language translation, and autonomous computer systems (which are designed to operate with minimal or no human intervention).
However, the production of 2-nm chips is associated with certain difficulties as it requires the use of extreme ultraviolet lithography technology.
Another big issue is heat. Even with relatively low consumption, as transistors shrink and densities increase, managing heat dissipation becomes a critical issue. Overheating can significantly reduce chip performance and durability. At such a small scale, traditional materials such as silicon may not be as productive anymore.
Based on the materials The Conversation
Source: ScienceAlert