IBM says new ultradense microchip might one day quadruple your cellphone's battery life

IBM says it has created a computer chip with components measuring just two nanometers across, about the width of a strand of DNA, in a move hailed as a breakthrough in semiconductor manufacturing. Every couple of years, tech companies such as IBM, Intel and Samsung have found new ways to pack additional transistors onto computer chips under what's known as Moore's Law - the idea that the number of transistors that can be placed on a chip doubles every two years. The added transistors, typically measured in nanometers, allow your devices to get better over time.

The microscopic chip parts - there are 25.4 million nanometers in an inch - could lead to improvements across virtually every electronic device that includes them since smaller components tend to equal faster performance and lower energy use. For now, IBM's two-nanometer transistors serve as a proof of concept, showing that smaller, more powerful chips are indeed possible despite analyst concerns that the age of doubling chip densities might be reaching an end as the tech pushes the limits of what seems physically possible. Computer chips powering most new devices today have transistors that range from five nanometers in premium smartphones to 10 nanometers in some PCs. But imagine only needing to charge your smartphone every four days or doubling your laptop's speed with little added cost thanks to the next generation of computer chips.