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Why doesn't the industry want to create a new metric? Like 2 bil transistors/square cm, let's call it 2 btsc or something. Surely they use something like that
by 323 4y ago
Why doesn't the industry want to create a new metric?
Like 2 bil transistors/square cm, let's call it 2 btsc or something. Surely they use something like that internally, why not publicly? Maybe there are different kinds of "transistors", some (CPU) bigger than others (RAM)?
- Symmetry 4y agoThe number of transistors per square centimeter will vary a lot depending on application. High speed logic is less dense than power efficient logic is less than RAM, for example. I suppose you could use a metric like a minimum size 8T SRAM cell but then you'd have complaints about foundries gaming the system by making process choices to shrink that at the expense of other structures.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- mjrpes 4y agoIntel kind of tried this. In their presentations when they were struggling with 10nm, they tried focusing on transistor density count. That failed; people remained confused, especially with the (nm)+++ convention for same-node improvements. Intel gave up their old naming convention last year and are now using a marketing naming scheme similar to TSMC/Samsung. Moreover, density is only one metric of improvement, the other major one is power efficiency. Foundries want to market these improvements too.
- zerohp 4y agoI work in chip design on single digit "nm" processes. Interally we might say 5nm to refer generally and N5 or N5P to refer to a specific process. When you need more specific numbers you look it up. Exact design parameters are carefully protected trade secrets. Commenters on Hacker News care a lot more about this distinction than the engineers working with it. Nobody cares that it is not gate length or half pitch.
- ip26 4y agoThe Xnm name is that. Each full mode maps to a little less than a doubling of density. https://www.hardwaretimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/TSMC-Samsung-Intel-Nodes.jpg https://www.hardwaretimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/TSM... A new metric could be more precise, but Xnm has mindshare, and works perfectly fine for the layman.