3 ms·
Maybe I'm not looking far enough ahead, but how is running 130nm MPWs competing with the TSMC/Samsung level of fabs? I can see how eFabless might have the eff
by gimmeThaBeet 6y ago
Maybe I'm not looking far enough ahead, but how is running 130nm MPWs competing with the TSMC/Samsung level of fabs?
I can see how eFabless might have the effect of commoditizing a foundry because you aren't necessarily locked in to their tooling.
But doesn't that principle only sort of hold if the foundry's process itself is sort of a commodity (i.e. mature,old)? Old has worse connotations than I mean, because you can do a lot at fairly large nodes, you just aren't making iPhone SoCs at 130nm.
- octoberfranklin 6y agoYou'd be surprised how much stuff is made on these old processes. A lot of very security-cricial stuff like Baseboard Management Controllers, lights-out management controllers, and laptop embedded controllers are almost entirely built on pre-OPC (i.e. pre-90nm) processes. All of those chips are in the "security flaw equals remote root" category. SkyWater's 130nm process is compatible with on-die flash (unlike most post-90nm and nearly all post-40nm processes). You could do a "secure enclave" or your own Hardware Security Module and not have to worry about backdoors. But to answer your question directly: this isn't about making an iPhone comeptitor.