This article was reprinted with permission from Superpower.com.
In recent days, Intel has suffered a lot of controversy and even criticism. The veteran semiconductor company that is about to turn 50 years old seems to lose to Samsung, the descendants of TSMC.
We must know that TSMC's original workmanship was also carefully directed by Intel. It was not expected that TSMC and Samsung will lead in various ways, especially the 10nm process node will be thrown away by the two companies.
The reason why ordinary people have this kind of understanding is actually that the semiconductor knowledge is too complicated. Intel still has strong strength in the field of semiconductor manufacturing. Their 10nm process transistor density is even better than that of Samsung and TSMC's 7nm process. .
In many people's cognitions, Samsung, TSMC surpassed Intel to a large extent by XXnm's figures. On the surface, 7nm is more advanced than 10nm, and 10nm is more advanced than 14nm. However, the underlying semiconductor technology is too complex. It's not what the line width can represent.
Samsung, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. has surpassed Intel for the first time at the 16/14nm FinFET node, and has tasted the sweetness of marketing. Therefore, there are many marketing components named after the process. For example, the 16nm optimization becomes the 12nm process, and the 14nm optimization becomes the 12nm LP. In contrast, Intel only dared to call 14nm, 14nm+, 14nm++ and so on.
When the price of honest people is to lose out, even at the 10nm node, Samsung, behind the TSMC will be derived from the 8nm-like process, people see dazzling, inconspicuous.
For this issue, Intel earlier expressed their helplessness and also countered the level of this measurement process, and introduced a new formula:
In this formula, Intel believes that an important measure of semiconductor technology is Transistor density , The above specific calculation process will be ignored. It is because of the understanding in the industry.
Under such circumstances, Intel has advantages over other companies in the process. At last year's Manufacturing Day Conference, Intel compared the processes of other companies:
14nm process conditions
First talk about the 14nm process, not to mention that Intel has been sewing 14nm technology until now, but compared with other homes obvious advantages, the transistor density is 134% of the 20nm process, while the other two only said 104%, 109%.
10nm node process comparison
On the 10nm node, Intel stated that their 10nm process transistor density reaches 100MTr/mm2, which is 100 million transistors per square millimeter, more than double the 14nm process.
Then compared with other homes? Semiwiki discussed the Samsung's 10nm, 8nm and 7nm process conditions, where the 10nm process transistor density is 55.10MTr/mm2, 8mm is 64.4MTr/mm2, 7nm process but also 101.23MTr/mm2.
According to the original, Samsung's transistor density is lower than the previously calculated Intel 10nm process density, which is slightly higher than that of Globalfoundries, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's 7nm process transistor.
in other words, Intel's 10nm process transistor density is equivalent to that of Samsung, TSMC, and GF's 7nm process. On the surface, it seems to be one generation or even two generations behind. However, Intel actually surpasses them in technical specifications.
So it is not surprising that Intel is depressed, not that they are not working hard, but that their opponents are too embarrassing and that they are taking advantage of the name of the process first.
Intel is powerless. In any case, investors, analysts do not pay attention to these technical details. What are your 10nm difficulties?
Why is it difficult to produce? Intel cannot answer it. Presumably because they are pregnant, they will have more than two years of birth time.
