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Tha vast majority of military chip requirements can be met with old processes. You don't need a 5nm chip with a 13 billion transistors in a F-35 or for the guid

Tha vast majority of military chip requirements can be met with old processes. You don't need a 5nm chip with a 13 billion transistors in a F-35 or for the guidance module in a cruise missile. Very modern chips are more suited for intelligence work no weapons systems per se. The physics of flight, artillery and balistic missiles is pretty much well understood, we don't need machine learning for that. Some modern systems use computer vision as a terminal guidance system, but again, you don't need state of art semis for that.

yyhhsj0521 2y ago
I'm not a military expert by any means, but I imagine 5nm chips/ML are immensely useful in designing F-35 and cruise missiles.
- 4gotunameagain 2y ago
  For CDF (Computational Fluid Dynamics) yes, but ML not so much. This is a relatively new technology and this sector is slow to change. Add in the fact of the black box nature of ML, and it becomes a pain to anything that requires a certification.
- 15155 2y ago
  Zero of the chips in the F-35 are 5nm or below. These aircraft use surprisingly old process nodes.
Workaccount2 2y ago
The defense department is far larger than missiles and planes. Also nuclear weapons simulation is what keeps the DoE continuously buying new world leading super computers.
vel0city 2y ago
Even from a designing a chip for ordinance perspective, there's a lot of meat on the bone to make chips just that much more accurate and that much less susceptible to interference. And making those more and more reliable, cheaper, and smaller is also a big deal. Stuff like this wasn't realistic from systems made in the 90s or even 00's. https://youtu.be/vY9rJBL1S2Y?si=Dq1QJp90Up6UKLaQ https://youtu.be/vY9rJBL1S2Y?si=Dq1QJp90Up6UKLaQ
mike50 2y ago
Apples and oranges. The F35 is probably using 15-20 year old technology based on program start. Some cruse missiles use 1970s era technology at the newest based on program start and publicly available documents (since there were some updates).

yyhhsj0521 2y ago

I'm not a military expert by any means, but I imagine 5nm chips/ML are immensely useful in designing F-35 and cruise missiles.

4gotunameagain 2y ago
For CDF (Computational Fluid Dynamics) yes, but ML not so much. This is a relatively new technology and this sector is slow to change. Add in the fact of the black box nature of ML, and it becomes a pain to anything that requires a certification.
15155 2y ago
Zero of the chips in the F-35 are 5nm or below. These aircraft use surprisingly old process nodes.

Workaccount2 2y ago

The defense department is far larger than missiles and planes. Also nuclear weapons simulation is what keeps the DoE continuously buying new world leading super computers.

vel0city 2y ago

Even from a designing a chip for ordinance perspective, there's a lot of meat on the bone to make chips just that much more accurate and that much less susceptible to interference. And making those more and more reliable, cheaper, and smaller is also a big deal. Stuff like this wasn't realistic from systems made in the 90s or even 00's. https://youtu.be/vY9rJBL1S2Y?si=Dq1QJp90Up6UKLaQ https://youtu.be/vY9rJBL1S2Y?si=Dq1QJp90Up6UKLaQ

mike50 2y ago

Apples and oranges. The F35 is probably using 15-20 year old technology based on program start. Some cruse missiles use 1970s era technology at the newest based on program start and publicly available documents (since there were some updates).