I am not sure, but I think that Globalfoundries stop at 12nm : it means that SMIC is getting closer to be on-par with Globalfoundries in terms of node...
GF has a 7nm process, but due to the cost of mass production (or so they say), what they were working on is being applied to a lower cost DUV process. It sounds like a half-node on steroids.
Whey didn't any European company develop such fabs. They couldn't do it or they didn't wanted to? Wondering if the Chinese have surpassed Europe in tech!
Europeans see themselves as buddies with the US, so they see no need to have their own technological thing going because of mistrust. AMD has a large fab in Dresden, does Infineon operate fabs? Most fabs on the world were a loss business apart from Intel (we don't know) and TSMC. Even Samsung fabs aren't making a profit last I read (not talking DRAM or NAND).
And "tech" is a whole lot more than what is convered in this article.
Semi fab industry evolve either mostly top down (Japan, Korea, China) or bottom up (US, Japan also, Europe, Taiwan). The top down model did not end well. The old Japanese semi national champions have all gone bust. Korean almost did and could be again as the Chinese are copying what they did to the Japanese. Bottom up companies cater to demands. The European industrial base first lost PC and then smartphone. Now like Japan its semi fabs cater to industrial applications, sticky but not node demanding.
Europe has been too much in love with a global economy to see the need for a private foundry industry that can't compete globally for lack of scale and skills.
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Diogene7 - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
I am not sure, but I think that Globalfoundries stop at 12nm : it means that SMIC is getting closer to be on-par with Globalfoundries in terms of node...ksec - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
The difference is GF are shipping them with decent yield, while SMIC has a track record of Press Release with no yield.brantron - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
GF has a 7nm process, but due to the cost of mass production (or so they say), what they were working on is being applied to a lower cost DUV process. It sounds like a half-node on steroids.https://www.anandtech.com/show/14905/globalfoundri...
And then there's the cross-licensing deal with TSMC. Whatever in the world they're up to, they aren't just calling it quits at the existing 12nm.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/15038/globalfoundri...
yannigr2 - Saturday, November 16, 2019 - link
@brantronThey tried to sue TSMC, then TSMC reacted. They probably signed whatever TSMC's lawyers gave them to sign.
TristanSDX - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
lol, chinese are now equal to Intel, something unbelievable few years ago. US is loosing technological lead.webdoctors - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
arent these just marketing numbers? I thought Intel 14nm =Samsung 7nm=TSMC 12m? Maybe there should be a mapping table somewhere.brantron - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Transistor density, very generalized, doesn't mention all the variations of each node:https://www.techcenturion.com/7nm-10nm-14nm-fabric...
More detailed, but slightly out of date, and current info may not be available yet:
https://semiwiki.com/semiconductor-manufacturers/i...
sseemaku - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Whey didn't any European company develop such fabs. They couldn't do it or they didn't wanted to? Wondering if the Chinese have surpassed Europe in tech!Death666Angel - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Europeans see themselves as buddies with the US, so they see no need to have their own technological thing going because of mistrust. AMD has a large fab in Dresden, does Infineon operate fabs? Most fabs on the world were a loss business apart from Intel (we don't know) and TSMC. Even Samsung fabs aren't making a profit last I read (not talking DRAM or NAND).And "tech" is a whole lot more than what is convered in this article.
wr3zzz - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Semi fab industry evolve either mostly top down (Japan, Korea, China) or bottom up (US, Japan also, Europe, Taiwan). The top down model did not end well. The old Japanese semi national champions have all gone bust. Korean almost did and could be again as the Chinese are copying what they did to the Japanese. Bottom up companies cater to demands. The European industrial base first lost PC and then smartphone. Now like Japan its semi fabs cater to industrial applications, sticky but not node demanding.s.yu - Saturday, November 16, 2019 - link
The major difference is China could sink a magnitude more money into its interests, this could make a fundamental difference.bubblyboo - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
They control the fab market with ASMLZizy - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
Well, Europe has IMEC as the research lab, but all the actual fabs are owned by Globalfoundries (Malta, Dresden).rocketbuddha - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
Malta is in upstate New York. Dresden is in Germany though.abufrejoval - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
Europe has been too much in love with a global economy to see the need for a private foundry industry that can't compete globally for lack of scale and skills.