IBM chip-design 'breakthrough' weakens Huawei claims - Light Reading

IBM has announced a significant breakthrough in chip design with its 'nanostack' technology, potentially surpassing Huawei's recently claimed 'Her's Law' innovation. While Huawei had suggested that 3D... Read original →

IBM’s 'nanostack' breakthrough represents a paradigm shift from planar to vertical transistor architectures, forcing immediate upgrades across EDA tools, advanced packaging, and thermal solutions while pressuring materials suppliers to achieve atomic-scale purity. In stark contrast, Huawei—blocked from ASML’s EUV tools—remains confined to 7nm-class processes via foundries in Taiwan, China and mainland China, rendering its 'Her’s Law' a clever but ultimately limited architectural workaround. Geopolitical export controls have now materially inflated R&D costs and yield risks for non-U.S. players. Within 12 months, TSMC and Samsung will likely accelerate 3D integration patenting to fortify their moats. SMIC’s N+3 or similar workarounds won’t overcome the EUV gap within 24 months. The real battle has shifted: post-Moore leadership hinges not on shrinking transistors, but on mastering heterogeneous stacking and interconnect density.