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It used to be that Intel was undisputed king of the silicon race. It's kind of shocking that they've fallen so far behind. TSMC is already doing 7nm mass produ
by AceJohnny2 8y ago
It used to be that Intel was undisputed king of the silicon race. It's kind of shocking that they've fallen so far behind.
TSMC is already doing 7nm mass production right now:
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20180622PD204.html https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20180622PD204.html
(arguably, what they call "7nm" isn't quite that, but still...)
- seiferteric 8y agoEvery single time an article comes up about this someone says this, and every single time someone refutes this saying that 7nm is a lie. Intel 10nm is supposed to be more dense than TSMC 7nm (if they ever get there).
- phire 8y agoThis fact keeps getting more and more exaggerated as time goes on. Yes, intel's 10nm absolutely smashes Samsung, GF and TSMC's 10nm processes. Yes Intel's 10nm should be very competitive/comparable with Samsung/GF/TSMC's 7nm processes. But all of the Intel 10nm metrics are slightly worse than the 7nm processes its now competing with. To cherrypick one metric as an example - * TSMC 10nm sram bitcell size: 0.042 µm² * Intel 10nm sram bitcell size: 0.031 µm² * TSMC 7nm sram bitcell size: 0.027 µm²
- gimmeThaBeet 8y agoThank you for actually showing feature size metrics, it has been a bit maddening to see people say 'you can compare them directly' but then I can't find a lot of comparisons about any kinds of features.
- redtuesday 8y agoIf you want that I recommend to look at semiwiki [0] and wikichip [1][2] [0] https://www.semiwiki.com/forum/content/7343-leading-edge-logic-landscape-2018-a.html https://www.semiwiki.com/forum/content/7343-leading-edge-log... [1] https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/10_nm_lithography_process https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/10_nm_lithography_process [2] https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/7_nm_lithography_process https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/7_nm_lithography_process
- unwind 8y agoMeta: indenting is for code, and very hard to read on mobile.
- deepnotderp 8y agoTsmc "7nm" and Intel "10nm" are roughly identical. Intel random logic is a bit denser thanks to COAG, SDG and BEOL and TSMC SRAM is a decent bit denser, that's mostly it.
- deaddodo 8y agoNo, TSMC 7nm is slightly ahead of Intel 10nm. Not 3nm ahead, but still, better. Also, one exists and the other is a broken hunk of silicon. That's the most important metric.
- hinkley 8y agoThe consensus the last time there was a delay was that TSMC's 7nm process is roughly comparable to Intel's 10nm process. They're still ahead, but only until Intel finally ships 10nm. I'm not sure how much this affects the industry in general, but I bet there are some interesting Intel vs Arm discussions being fueled in Apple's product roadmap meetings.
- xenadu02 8y agoThis is still a massive change. Intel used to be 1-2 generations ahead of everyone else. Now they're slightly behind.
- hinkley 8y agoOh sure. I just like to be excited for the right reasons. If we've gone asymptotic, it makes me wonder what other companies will be able to field a chip that's 90% as good as Intel in the next decade...
- throwaway2048 8y agoTSMC hasn't shipped 7nm yet. Nor has actual production of chips began.
- ac29 8y agoHigh-volume production started in April: https://www.anandtech.com/show/12677/tsmc-kicks-off-volume-production-of-7nm-chips https://www.anandtech.com/show/12677/tsmc-kicks-off-volume-p... I don't believe a customer or customers have been announced publicly yet, but the rumour mill seems to think Apple's A12 will be one of the first to ship on TSMC 7nm.
- ksec 8y agoTrue, but if all goes according to plan TSMC will have 7nm producing and shipping any moment now and ready for iPhone in September.
- agumonkey 8y agoI think intel tried to go too deep at once thinking it had time to do so and now that others are reducing the distance bit by bit it looks like they're late
- Valmar 8y ago7 nm... 10 nm... all marketing bullshit, at the end of the day. Only way to know is compare the raw, different aspects of nodes.