The leap from 90nm chips to 65nm is still at work and IBM is leading the way to reducing the size even further to 32nm in this joint venture with Samsung and Freescale.

These chips require less power therefore making less heat and are able to run much, much cooler than their older 90nm counterparts. 65nm chips are making their way into the console world now so the idea of these chips becoming a reality soon is good news for PC gamers and console gamers alike.

The alliance partners, also including Germany's Infineon Technologies AG and privately owned U.S. Freescale Semiconductor Inc., said in a statement they signed development agreements that include 32-nanometre process technologies.

Jointly developing technologies and synchronizing manufacturing processes are growing trends in the industry and help chip makers cut costs and serve high-volume clients.

International Business Machines Corp. is the world's largest technology-services company and South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is the biggest maker of memory chips.

They will work through 2010 to design, develop and produce the advanced-generation chips that can be used in products from mobile devices to supercomputers.

Technologies using ever diminishing circuit sizes help boost chip makers' productivity, but companies are finding the ceaseless move to smaller sizes increasingly difficult.

"Major new challenges are expected at the 32-nanometre node, both in materials as well as device structures," said Kwon Oh-Hyun, president of Samsung's System LSI business.

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