As Moore's law slows down, fabs will have longer life near the leading edge. So, for example, 45 nm rolled out in 2007. If in 2005 you were crazy enough to try

As Moore's law slows down, fabs will have longer life near the leading edge. So, for example, 45 nm rolled out in 2007. If in 2005 you were crazy enough to try to bootstrap a 32 nm fab, you might have hoped to have the line completed a year behind the industry if you were lucky. (You have to get it working, get the customers,and get them shipping in volume to get the business healthy.) So Joe's Tool and Die startup fab rolls out their 32->36 nm process in 2010. And they luck out because the 22->28 happens in 2012 (a 3 yr gap vs the typical 2 yr at that time.) But 22->28 rolls out and JT&D is playing catch up again. If the same cycle stretches to 5 years, the technology ramp becomes much more manageable.