4 ms·

Sorry, just to be clear did Intel announce they would be moving to measuring stuff in angstroms, and that they first measurement would be 20 angstroms. Also kno

Sorry, just to be clear did Intel announce they would be moving to measuring stuff in angstroms, and that they first measurement would be 20 angstroms. Also known as.... 2nm. You really have to hand it to that marketing department.

d_tr 4y ago
They used to measure in microns, so this is the expected next step I guess. Anyway, I hope this goes well. We need more cutting edge fabs.
- kurthr 4y ago
  It's sort of interesting as a human tendency. You very rarely hear anyone in the industry refer to 0.25u as 250nm, but below 2 at 0.18u you do occasionally hear it referred to as 180nm. By the time you're at 130nm, it's quite rare to hear it referred to as 0.13 and at 90nm you never hear 0.09um. This wasn't some industry planned marketing thing... it just seems reasonable. It's convenient that there are angstroms as well, since they are close atomic sized (Silicon atom is ~0.2nm - lattice parameter 0.54nm).
systemvoltage 4y ago
Intel’s marketing dept was so cool in 90’s. Blue man group, bunny suit commercials, the jingle, Pentium ads. Even the USB inventor rockstar commercial was super cool in mid 2000’s. Things went downhill after Paul Otellini left and BK was brought it. Paul missed the mark on mobile chips, but BK is the reason for Intel’s malaise in last 10 years. He destroyed the company much the same way that HP exec gutted out the company in early 2000’s. I miss Pentium. What a cool name. I heard Marketing folks did an internal survey and it was suggested by an employee. Good judgement and brand acumen.
- pigtailgirl 4y ago
  -- I'd be very curious to know who was running marketing at Intel in the 90s - agreed it was amazing - but I recall Otellini joining in the early 2000s? --
- throwaway81523 4y ago
  semiaccurate.com really had its knives out for BK. Idk what parts of it were accurate and what parts were "semi".
nicoburns 4y ago
Honestly, when you're down to 2nm it makes quite a bit of sense to start measuring in Angstroms.
tyrfing 4y ago
On the technology side, it lines up with the switch to GAA from FinFET. That 2nm/20a process is just a stopgap before 1.8nm/18a, and has more to do with 1.8nm than any of the old processes. Seems TSMC is sticking with nm for their naming, even for 1.4nm.

d_tr 4y ago

They used to measure in microns, so this is the expected next step I guess. Anyway, I hope this goes well. We need more cutting edge fabs.

kurthr 4y ago
It's sort of interesting as a human tendency. You very rarely hear anyone in the industry refer to 0.25u as 250nm, but below 2 at 0.18u you do occasionally hear it referred to as 180nm. By the time you're at 130nm, it's quite rare to hear it referred to as 0.13 and at 90nm you never hear 0.09um. This wasn't some industry planned marketing thing... it just seems reasonable. It's convenient that there are angstroms as well, since they are close atomic sized (Silicon atom is ~0.2nm - lattice parameter 0.54nm).

systemvoltage 4y ago

Intel’s marketing dept was so cool in 90’s. Blue man group, bunny suit commercials, the jingle, Pentium ads. Even the USB inventor rockstar commercial was super cool in mid 2000’s. Things went downhill after Paul Otellini left and BK was brought it. Paul missed the mark on mobile chips, but BK is the reason for Intel’s malaise in last 10 years. He destroyed the company much the same way that HP exec gutted out the company in early 2000’s. I miss Pentium. What a cool name. I heard Marketing folks did an internal survey and it was suggested by an employee. Good judgement and brand acumen.

pigtailgirl 4y ago
-- I'd be very curious to know who was running marketing at Intel in the 90s - agreed it was amazing - but I recall Otellini joining in the early 2000s? --
throwaway81523 4y ago
semiaccurate.com really had its knives out for BK. Idk what parts of it were accurate and what parts were "semi".

nicoburns 4y ago

Honestly, when you're down to 2nm it makes quite a bit of sense to start measuring in Angstroms.

tyrfing 4y ago

On the technology side, it lines up with the switch to GAA from FinFET. That 2nm/20a process is just a stopgap before 1.8nm/18a, and has more to do with 1.8nm than any of the old processes. Seems TSMC is sticking with nm for their naming, even for 1.4nm.