
AMD's 5nm CPUs could be monsters - stambros
https://www.pcgamer.com/amds-5nm-cpus-could-be-monsters-if-tsmcs-transistor-numbers-are-right/
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cactus2093
As someone who hasn’t followed this space too closely, is there a good tl;dr
explanation of how intel lost their lead? It doesn’t seem like an “innovator’s
dilemma” situation since they seem to be getting beat at their core competency
of laptop, desktop and server cpus.

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solotronics
They blew an incredible amount of effort and money on new processes that
didn't pan out. The failure rate was too high for production. AMD doesnt fab
their own chips so they can piggyback on the progress unlocked by the fabs
that build for cellphones (TSMC in this case).

Also, transistor density is a better measure than 5nm/7nm/10nm. That feature
detail in nanometers is more or less pure marketing term and doesn't compare
accurately. Intels transistor density is still better than the latest Ryzen
but it looks like they will be matched or surpassed by the next gen AMD.

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ksquarekumar
Intel is at 14nm and amd is at 7nm, yet the transistor densities are higher on
the Intel side?

Do you have any source to back this claim? I know that node sizes are mostly
meaningless at this point, but still this is invalidating 3 generations of
node jumps on the TSMC/AMD side vs none on the intel side, surely it can't be
that meaningless of a number?

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marcusarmstrong
Wikipedia claims MTr/mm^2s of:

    
    
      Intel 14: 37.5
      Intel 10: 100.8
      TSMC 16/14/12: 28.88
      TSMC 10: 52.51
      TSMC 7: 96.5 to 113.9, depending on iteration.
      TSMC 5: 173

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jdsully
It really shows you how good Intel's IP is that they can even make competitive
CPUs on a generation old process.

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lonelappde
No, it's just that they use a different scale for vanity metric number.
Intel's chips aren't competitive for the price; they just have customer
inertia.

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jdsully
Even on a transistors per mm measure the 14nm++++ they are using is vastly
inferior to TSMC’s 7nm.

Its only Intel 10nm that is equivalent and we don’t have desktop CPUs on that
process yet (if we will at all).

