[deleted]
IBM says it has made working versions of 7nm chips
31–40 of 129 posts
Re: IBM says it has made working versions of 7nm chips
#32The lattice spacing of silicon is ~0.54nm so 7nm is around 13 lattice spacing, it's really impressive. Slowly but surely we will hit atomic limits.
The node size do not correspond to a given dimension of a structure anymore, it's computed property, from area of a given standard cell (e.g. SRAM cell).
Re: IBM says it has made working versions of 7nm chips
#33As I recall, there is microelectronics
fab work in Taiwan, South Korea,
and, in the US, at IBM and Intel,
at least. And maybe China and
Russia are trying to get caught up
in fabs.
I wonder: What organization, really, is mostly responsible for the newer fabs? I mean, do each of Samsung, Intel, IBM, etc. do everything on their own? Or is there a main company, maybe Applied Materials, with some help from, say, some small company for UV sources, some optics from, maybe, Nikon, some mechanical pieces, etc., that does the real work for all the fabs?
7 nm -- what speed and power increases will that bring over 14 nm, 22 nm or whatever is being manufactured now, etc.?
Long live Moore's law! It ain't over until the fat lady sings, and I don't hear any fat lady yet!
Re: IBM says it has made working versions of 7nm chips
#34Return of the PowerPC Mac?
Ha, not likely. But because IBM and GF will manufacture for 3rd parties there's at least hope for AMD now if they get a better design.
I don't think that AMDs designs are particularly bad... an FX-8350 can go toe to toe with a higher end i5. Of course that's without the power savings of a newer process.
I do hope that AMD comes up with something with a single-core performance competitive to an i7 with a power envelope in the ballpark.
Re: IBM says it has made working versions of 7nm chips
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a tour of AMD's Dresden fab several years ago, it was literally a building inside a building, with the inner building mounted on shock absorbers to isolate it from vibrations. IIRC the manufacturing chain was entirely automated - silicon in, chips out. That was several generations ago, I'm looking forward to seeing what is required to manufacture with high yield at 7nm!
Is it possible for general members of the public to arrange tours of microprocessor fabs anywhere?
With all the clean rooms required, I doubt it, but I don't know.
Re: IBM says it has made working versions of 7nm chips
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I could be wrong, but I think optical processors would have serious diffraction problems with a 7 nm feature size, since the wavelength of blue light is somewhere around 300 nm. As far as fabrication, one problem is that obviously you aren't using visible light to etch features on your wafers. The x-rays must be fun to work with... Not to mention, your photoresist would have to resist x-rays. Getting x-ray-resisting…
Hmm yeah I have no idea, I mostly read this which really intrigued me but I don't really understand all of the technology and science behind it http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/2010/2010072... I had always gotten the impression that even if it they couldn't get as small the impact of less heat and the ability to cross beams could allow them to be denser. But like I said I don't really know what I'm tal…
You can't cross light beams at 7nm, if you had a "crossroads" structure" it would simply diffract round the corner and exit at all three other points.
Re: IBM says it has made working versions of 7nm chips
#37Great talk that describes how modern (as of 2011) computer chips are manufactured: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGFhc8R_uO4
This EEVBlog episode on silicon chips is also great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0WEx0Gwk1E
Re: IBM says it has made working versions of 7nm chips
#38No mention of Intel anywhere in the article and how far along they are. Also 7nm blows my mind. I mean current CPUs already blow my mind with how tiny the transistors are getting. And specially stabilized buildings? "NOBODY MOVE! WE'RE ETCHING!"
I had a tour of AMD's Dresden fab several years ago, it was literally a building inside a building, with the inner building mounted on shock absorbers to isolate it from vibrations. IIRC the manufacturing chain was entirely automated - silicon in, chips out. That was several generations ago, I'm looking forward to seeing what is required to manufacture with high yield at 7nm!
Were you doing the tour as a vendor or a customer?
Re: IBM says it has made working versions of 7nm chips
#39Re: IBM says it has made working versions of 7nm chips
#40YES! Kill Intel, PPC64 everywhere :) It will not happen, I know, but "Wouldn't it be nice" was always one of my favorite Beach Boys song (Pet Sounds!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofByti7A4uM This is THE chance.
Why exactly do you care so much?