This is in regards to the highest end fab technologies, which doesn't even include IBM who apparently have a 22nm fab. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semi

This is in regards to the highest end fab technologies, which doesn't even include IBM who apparently have a 22nm fab. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semiconductor_fabrication_plants http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semiconductor_fabricati... With the most advanced fab technologies there's a much smaller number of companies that can both afford the initial capital investment (these plants are _insanely_ expensive) and the engineering expertise / tools to even design at these processes. Meanwhile, the $3 microcontroller I buy that runs as 12mhz fits every requirement I have while being manufactured at a cheaper, but much larger process. The high end processors and FPGAs however, benefit much more from smaller feature sizes (and those FPGAs cost accordingly). As far as I know, when these 4 companies make advancements, the entire industry benefits. For example, Nikon comes out with a more advanced stepper for 14nm processes, Intel is the one paying the premium for them, and later the rest of the industry can benefit from a more reliable 65/45/32nm process after the cutting edge companies have moved on. I believe this is true for the EDA tool space as well. The last paragraph is a bit of speculation on my part. I'm not in the semiconductor field but I know a bit about it, and logically it makes sense for tools / equipment. It does not include things like internal knowledge about manufacturing reliably on a certain process however.