11–20 of 66 posts
Is TSMC the only who is close to doing this? What about Samsung or Intel? Or research labs that do smaller runs?
I think that Intel is one step behind. They'll likely produce 7nm in 2024 which should be comparable with TSMC 5nm. But TSMC 5nm already available for Apple.
Is TSMC the only who is close to doing this? What about Samsung or Intel? Or research labs that do smaller runs?
I think that Intel is one step behind. They'll likely produce 7nm in 2024 which should be comparable with TSMC 5nm. But TSMC 5nm already available for Apple.
So is it safe to assume that Apple will book 100% of the first production runs for this new process as well?
I think it depends on price. At some point chips will cost too much for consumer electronics. You wouldn't want to buy iPhone with $1000 CPU.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that Intel is one step behind. They'll likely produce 7nm in 2024 which should be comparable with TSMC 5nm. But TSMC 5nm already available for Apple.
And that is even a bit of a high risk guess, probably closer to 2025. But yeah, pretty much. Is Intel even looking into Mbcfet?
Can someone ELI5 how TSMC is able to produce sub-7nm chips? I know quantum tunneling and the like becomes an issue at this size. I don't have a great physics background so I'm struggling to find a simple enough explanation for how they are dealing with this. Is it not as big a deal as I may think?
That number has nearly zero bearing on the actual physical sizes of the chip's components.
The only people who know about the exact dimensions are the firms placing manufacturing contracts with TSMC.
So is it safe to assume that Apple will book 100% of the first production runs for this new process as well?
I think it depends on price. At some point chips will cost too much for consumer electronics. You wouldn't want to buy iPhone with $1000 CPU.
Is TSMC the only who is close to doing this? What about Samsung or Intel? Or research labs that do smaller runs?
On paper I don't think it's risky to say everyone is looking at GAAFETs and MBCFETs, they're the evolution of finFETs (okay, we have the fin, what about more than one fin? Okay, how about the channel is surrounded by the gate (Gate-All-Around)?) How far along is everyone to making them commercially available with good yields, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
I think the surprising thing to me was TSMC has thus far (as of like a month ago) been of the mind "nah, finFETs are fine". But keep in mind, that was for their 3nm node, which this isn't.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16041/where-are-my-gaafets-ts...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that Intel is one step behind. They'll likely produce 7nm in 2024 which should be comparable with TSMC 5nm. But TSMC 5nm already available for Apple.
Intel is more like 3 steps behind, one of their shoes is missing and the other is missing laces
There was a goal. The goal became PR. Someone in management began to believe the PR, and turned it into a promise, predicated on 'and then a miracle occurs' (the engineers figure out how to do some things that haven't been done before). The engineers keep trying to explain how nobody has done this before because you can't. To do so involves violating the laws of physics or Information Theory. Anyone who cracks this problem deserves a Nobel nomination, so that probably isn't us.
Middle management is stuck in the middle because someone has made promises we can't keep, and they either make it worse or help cover it up by playing for time.
You either solve a different problem that has similar behavior (or at least, until researchers discover Meltdown), or you slowly reset expectations until people are chronically grumpy but nobody is yelling.
Can someone ELI5 how TSMC is able to produce sub-7nm chips? I know quantum tunneling and the like becomes an issue at this size. I don't have a great physics background so I'm struggling to find a simple enough explanation for how they are dealing with this. Is it not as big a deal as I may think?
I don't actually know anything about chip production. But that's what I've picked up from HN.