6 ms·
TSMC claims breakthrough in the arbitrary naming of process nodes.
by dogma1138 5y ago
TSMC claims breakthrough in the arbitrary naming of process nodes.
- tyingq 5y ago“We resolved one of the biggest problems in miniaturizing semiconductor devices, the contact resistance between a metal electrode and a monolayer semiconductor material” I'm no expert, but that sounds significant.
- ummonk 5y agoThe real breakthrough would be figuring out what to name the line after the "1nm". They've backed themselves into a corner, running out of odd numbers.
- phlo 5y agoNot too long ago, process nodes were discussed at μm scale. Extrapolating from the past, I think there's a fairly straightforward way [0] to come up with names for the next few increments. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_prefix#List_of_SI_prefixes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_prefix#List_of_SI_prefi...
- Judgmentality 5y agoOr even better, just use angstrom, which is 1/10 of a nanometer. So you go from 1nm to 9Å. Plus it sounds cool and scientific and it's actually not (total) marketing bullshit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angstrom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angstrom
- vanattab 5y agoWhy would a change in the unit of length change the marketing practices of the silicone foundries?
- Judgmentality 5y agoIt wouldn't, but marketing based on an objective metric is better than inventing metrics or tying them to abstract concepts like a carbon tax (a carbon tax is a banker's solution to global warming, ie how can we profit from it). The (total) qualifier was just because I realize node sizes are measured slightly different depending on the foundry, ie TSMC and Intel mean different things when they say 10nm.
- jarym 5y agoI invented the first 0nm process. I am gonna mint an NFT and sell it for the value of $21m BTC... :D
- CivBase 5y agoPerhaps one of the following, seeing as the naming scheme is pretty arbitrary at this point? 1nm, 500um, 350um, 250um, 180um, 130um, 100um, 90um ... 1nm, 0.7nm, 0.5nm, 0.3nm, 0.2nm, 0.1nm, 0.07nm, 0.05nm ... 1nm, 1/2nm, 1/3nm, 1/5nm, 1/7nm, 1/10nm, 1/14nm ... 1nm, 0nm, -1nm, -3nm, -5nm, -7nm, -10nm, -14nm ... 1nm, 1b nm, 1a nm, 1g nm, 1n nm, 1ac nm, 1ax nm ... 1nm, 360nm, one nm, one x nm, series x nm ...
- williadc 5y agoSub micron processes were just called 0.x um. Why not do that for nm? Another fine option would be to change the unit to Angstroms. That would likely be the last unit change though.
- narrator 5y agopicometers is the next unit down.
- FPGAhacker 5y agoThere are an infinite amount of numbers between 1 and 0. Or they could go to picometers and femtometers giving another 6 orders of magnitude.
- hutrdvnj 5y ago> They've backed themselves into a corner, running out of odd numbers. Nah, next odd number smaller than 1nm is simply -1nm lithography.