IBM Unveils 0.7nm Chip Prototype With 100 Billion Transistors Using Novel 3D Nanostack Architecture

IBM on Thursday unveiled the world's first sub-1 nanometer chip technology, a research prototype at the 0.7 nanometer node that packs nearly 100 billion transistors onto a chip the size of a fingernail.

The announcement centers on what IBM calls the 'nanostack,' an entirely new three-dimensional transistor architecture developed at its semiconductor research facility in Albany, New York.

The design stacks and staggers transistors vertically in two bonded layers, using an ultra-thin dielectric material to separate them.