Chipmakers Intel, Toshiba and Samsung are set to join up to develop technologies that could more than halve semiconductor line widths to nearly 10 nanometers by 2016.

The Nikkei Daily (never a day goes past without this being deleivered out to Blanchardstown) report that Samsung Electronics and Toshiba – the world’s top two leading makers of NAND-type memory, respectively – together with world’s largest chipmaker Intel, intend to form a consortium shortly and invite about 10 firms operating in semiconductor materials and related fields.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will likely provide around 5 billion yen (€44 million) of the roughly 10 billion yen in initial funds for the R&D efforts, with the rest expected to come from the members of the consortium, a Reuters report added.

Toshiba and Samsung plan to use the technologies to make 10 nanometer-class NAND flash memory and other chips, while Intel will likely use it to develop faster microprocessors, the Nikkei said.

A nanometer is a millionth of a millimeter, or a hair’s width divided by 100,000 by the by.