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> Then, there is the cost-driven decision. This is for foundry customers who may have lower volume products. They may not recoup their investment at 10nm. So, i
by MichaelBurge 11y ago
> Then, there is the cost-driven decision. This is for foundry customers who may have lower volume products. They may not recoup their investment at 10nm. So, it makes more sense for them to skip 10nm and move to 7nm.
Why is it cheaper to design a 7nm chip for a given performance than to design a 10nm chip? The article mentions the yields on newer processes are lower, so I would've expected them to be the performance option not the cost option.
- dboreham 11y agoCost is often driven by #die/wafer, which in turn is driven by die size which in turn is (often) driven by feature size.
- petra 11y agoNot an expert, but even if it was only a recompile, the development tools and fabrication masks are a decent share of the development costs, tens of millions.
- quickaccount 11y agoIt isn't. But if you move straight to 7nm you only need to recoup the costs for 7nm, not 10nm + 7nm.