ARM is all about designing awesome processors and then licensing the blueprint to create said processors to companies that actually build chips. One of those hardware makers is IBM, who ARM has worked with in the past to design processors that can be created on nodes as small as 28 nanometers. To give you an idea of how small that is, today’s ARM Cortex processors that are used by Samsung and NVIDIA in their respective Hummingbird and Tegra 2 processors are using 45 nanometer technology. Why are smaller process nodes important? They use less power, they take up less space, they make less heat, and more importantly you can make more processors per silicon wafer, thereby making them cheaper to produce as well.
This week IBM has announced that they’re going to extend their partnership with ARM and help them design their processors to be built using 14 nanometer technology. IBM has also announced that ARM has delivered 11 test chips using the 32 and 28 nanometer process and that they’re currently going through testing to see if they work. They go on to say that ARM has successfully built a 32 nanometer Cortex A9 processor using High-K Metal Gate technology.
“IBM has a proven track record of delivering the core research and development that is relied upon by major semiconductor vendors worldwide for their advanced semiconductor devices. Their leadership of the ISDA alliance, which features a diverse set of top-tier companies as members, is growing in importance as consolidation trends in the semiconductor manufacturing industry continue” said Simon Segars, EVP and general manager, ARM physical IP division. “This agreement will ensure we are able to deliver highly tuned ARM Artisan Physical IP solutions on advanced ISDA process technologies to meet the early time-to-market our customers demand.”
All the above techno mumbo jumbo simply means this: the phones coming out next year, and the year after that, will be faster than anything else you’ve ever seen, but you already knew that.