While not likely to be commercially viable for at least a few years, IBM announced Thursday the production of test chips at half the size those commercially available.  In a press release, IBM noted the breakthrough was achieved in joint efforts with Globalfoundaries and Samsung at SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.

IBM notes the 7 nanometer technology could enable fitting  more than 20 billion transistors on a “fingernail-sized” chip.  IBM credits the outcome to its renewed investment in chip Research and Development.  In 2014, the company announced a five-year, $3 billion program, and that this breakthrough bypassed conventional manufacturing models, including Silicon Germanium channel transistors and Extreme Ultraviolet lithography integration, using much shorter wavelengths than current tools

The Wall Street Journal cites Dan Hutcheson, an analyst at VLSI research, at indicating the test chip doesn’t mean we’ll get these new products soon.  Intel is reportedly planning on introducing a 10 nanometer chip in 2016.  Chip makers also time their chip introductions so as to not over cannibalize prior product viability depending upon competitive pressures and industry demand.

As a way of comparison, the width of a human hair is estimated at between 30 and 100 micometers.  A micrometer is 10000 nanometers.

Moore’s law is named for Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, who ovserved over 50 years ago that transistors on a chip were doubling every year since integrated circuits were invented.  The challenges at smaller and smaller surface sizes suggest this cannot continue forever, but technology hasn’t given up yet.