In a move that doesn't surprise anyone, TSMC and GlobalFoundries, two of the world's leading semiconductor foundries (they make chips) are looking to begin development on a 20nm chip for next generation ARM based mobile processors. The advantage of doing so includes:
- 30% faster clock speed
- 1.9 times better density
- 25% less power consumption
Currently, the fastest mobile processor chips such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and NVIDIA Tegra 4i use a fabrication process of 28nm and have reached speeds of 2.3GHz. The 20nm jump will not only make it possible to increase speeds up to 3GHz but also make chips which save more energy but do more at the same time. These much faster chips are expected in 2014 but probably won't reach consumers until the middle of next year.
[Source]
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