IBM and a consortium of partners have announced plans to develop 28-nanometer high-k manufacturing technology that will compete with both Intel and TSMC. The move may also have an effect on AMD, seeing as its GlobalFoundries manufacturing spinoff has also taken part on the agreement, which seeks to accelerate the transition to a more efficient process. The new partnership calls for early risk production in the second half of 2010 so it's going to take some time before we see any actual products based on this technology.
As manufacturers shrink the size of transistors, more of the components can be packed onto a piece of silicon, boosting power without increasing power consumption. IBM says that early work with some clients has shown that the 28nm technology can provide a 40% performance improvement while saving up to 20% in power compared to 45nm technology devices. For its part, Intel plans to start volume shipments of its 32nm Westmere architecture later this year, and potentially move to a 22nm process as soon as 2012.