New Transistor Structures At 3nm/2nm

Post by lizknope » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 7:41 PM UTC

mlindner wrote: post #53

Hacker news comment sections on articles about semiconductors always seems to be full of people talking authoritatively about things they clearly don't understand. And this is all visible to someone who only majored in computer engineering and got basic training in transistors and logic design who's day job is now in software. I can only imagine the people who actually know transistors cringing in here (and thus avoi…

I do semiconductor digital physical design for the last 23 years. But almost everything I do is at the standard cell (AND/OR/flip flop) level. I generally don't do anything at the transitor level. I have seen some good comments here in the past.

Post by souprock » Tue, Jan 26, 2021, 11:45 PM UTC

ibobev wrote: post #77

souprock wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly we need a better measurement. I suggest picking an open core, then reporting the number that can be produced per square meter. Some choices: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Open_microprocessors The IBM A2 and the UltraSPARC T2 look like sane choices. Perhaps there is a suitable RISC-V. So then comparing processes, we could say that process X can do 54255 chips per square meter and process Y can do 8380…

There is such standard measure but it is the number of transistors for a square millimeter[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_count#Transistor_de...

That is not a great measurement. Transistors can be of different types, each with different value in terms of making products work. Other things matter too: metal, pads, die separation saw cuts, e-fuses, diodes, resistors, and capacitors. Nobody cares about transistors that can't be hooked up to anything.

Re: New Transistor Structures At 3nm/2nm

Re: New Transistor Structures At 3nm/2nm