
TSMC Starts $19.5B 3nm Fab Construction - NicoJuicy
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/tsmc-fab-3nm-5nm-process-intel-samsung
======
NanoCoaster
Can anyone explain to me what "3nm" means in practice nowadays? My impressions
was that the "x nm" was originally meant to mean "minimnum distance between
seperate components", but I don't actually know if this is the correct
definition. But I also heard that they don't really have a real meaning
nowadays, serving more as categorizing and marketing terms instead of actually
meaning anything regarding the physical layout of the chips.

So, what is it actually supposed to mean? And how does 3nm correspond to the
real, physical layout of the chips?

EDIT: Thanks for all the answers, I'll be sure to read through the links. Very
interesting stuff :)

~~~
beefman
Browsing WikiChip is advisable here

[https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/technology_node](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/technology_node)

The short answer is that Intel is the only foundry that even tries to keep its
"technology node" in step with feature size. I give them a lot of credit for
it because technology node 'deflation' by their competitors has been very
successful in misleading consumers and even tech-savvy people.

~~~
qeternity
Thanks for the link. Interesting in this war that they have taken the high
route, whereas in the gigahertz wars, AMD had to creatively name their
components so that consumers knew which Intel parts they were roughly
comparable to.

~~~
dghughes
It was so hard back in the late 1990s to overcome the indoctrination we all
went through. I built an AMD Athlon system but it took a lot of work and self-
searching to make that leap. It was like leaving a cult.

------
aritmo
This is a big bet by TSMC. If they pull it through, and they might do, they
will be ahead of competition for the next decade.

~~~
mdorazio
I wonder what Intel's response to this will be. I haven't heard any news about
them getting in the 3nm game within the next 2 years.

~~~
jjoonathan
Do we know the story of what happened in the Intel 10nm debacle? I know that
they went from being a generation ahead of everyone to a generation behind
TSMC, but that seems like a bigger misstep than just fumbling a single node.

~~~
rrss
I've heard rumors that 10nm was late and management at Intel put a lot of
pressure on the process teams, which led to the "old guard" quitting and the
younger generation left fumbling with unusable yields.

But they're only rumors - it's entirely possible that's not the case.

~~~
jjoonathan
The only thing I have to go on is the fact that the semiconductor rumor mill
absolutely called this one.

Years ago, when intel was publicly announcing that 10nm would ship in a few
months, the rumor mill said that not only would it not ship in a few months,
it would not ship at all for the foreseeable future, up to the point of
missing the entire 10nm node. That's exactly what happened.

The scenario you described would be 100% consistent with those observations. I
still look forward to the inside scoop because, in accordance with your
suspicions, I suspect there's a juicy case study in there about self-deluded
"beatings will continue until morale improves" style management felling an
industry titan, or at least stumbling it badly.

------
ifthenelseend
Meanwhile Intel is working on 14++++++++nm technology that improves
performance by 0.000000001%

This will be an easy game for AMD and TSMC...

