December 18 - 3:05pm EST   Toshiba today revealed that it will assist IBM's 32-nanometer processor development. The Japanese electronics maker will join AMD, Samsung, and other technology firms in the IBM Semiconductor Alliance in producing CPUs and other chips based on the smaller manufacturing process, likely leading to faster components to be shared between some or all of the firms, such as IBM's Cell processor used in the PlayStation 3 and future AMD Phenom cores. [full story]

December 10 - 10:35am EST   IBM began its week with news that it has developed a new 32-nanometer processor manufacturing technology that it says will not just improve performance but also make it more accessible. The process uses a variant on the same high-k/metal gate technique that replaces some of the silicon in transistors with more efficient, cooler materials to pack more components into a single chip and increase performance. An enhancement, known as "high-k/gate-first," not only includes a further shrink from the 45 nanometers of technology about to reach the market to 32 nanometers but is also easier to produce. By focusing on the most advanced components first, it lets partner companies ... [full story]