The new material being used is known as high-k/metal gate (HKMG) on silicon and is being manufactured at IBM’s 300mm semiconductor fab facility in East Fishkill, New York. The new HKMG process is allowing IBM to build circuits at 32nm. IBM says that this size reduction allows for 35% higher performance that similar chips made using 45nm technology. IBM also says that power savings on 32nm chips are from 30 to 50% compared to 45nm parts.

Gary Patton, vice president for IBM’s Semiconductor Research and Development Center said in a statement, “These early high-k/metal gate results demonstrate that by working together we can deliver leading-edge technologies that handily surpass others in the industry. Demonstrating this caliber of result in a practical environment means that as our collective client base moves to next-generation technology by using the 'gate-first' approach, they will continue to maintain a significant competitive advantage.”

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