3 ms·
The newer designs aren't actually RAD-hardened, but fault tolerant. It's physically impossible to produce RAD-hard semiconductors at the small scale we're curr
by UltraViolence 4y ago
The newer designs aren't actually RAD-hardened, but fault tolerant.
It's physically impossible to produce RAD-hard semiconductors at the small scale we're currently producing high-end CPU's with.
I read this in an article somewhere but don't have the link.
- magicalhippo 4y agoSeems it's not quite as dire as one might imagine, for example the DAHLIA project is using ST's 28nm FDSOI process[1]. In any case, I found this[2] article interesting and illuminating, which goes into different aspects of radiation hardening, including how the "old = safe" isn't strictly true. [1]: https://dahlia-h2020.eu/about-project/ https://dahlia-h2020.eu/about-project/ [2]: https://habr.com/en/post/518366/ https://habr.com/en/post/518366/
- sheepybloke 4y agoYou are correct, since chips designed at around 5-7 nm are much more likely to be hit with radiation. However, by scaling up the chip, you can be a lot more tolerant to it. Because of this, most chips are fabbed at around 28 nm. Generally, you want a mix of both things. You can harden a chip by shielding it, but that doesn't stop everything, so you add some fault tolerance.