Chip voltage: Why less is better: A reduced power-supply standard is in the offing as manufacturers and designers grapple with the tradeoffs of submicrometer devices

Until now, even the densest integrated circuits have operated off a 5-volt power supply. But in February, two makers broke with tradition: IBM introduced a 4-megabit random access memory, and NTT Corp. revealed a 16-Mbit RAM test chip. Both chips operate at 3.3 V.