China's SMIC semiconductor manufacturer achieves "breakthrough", producing 7nm chips despite sanctions - Update: moving on to 5nm

[mr moose]

1 hour ago, LAwLz said:

It is always fascinating to see threads like this, because it becomes very apparent which people actually read the news articles before commenting, and which people just comment based on their feelings and hopes.

 

 

Very good job by SMIC. I am not a fan of the things the US are doing to the rest of the world, such as trying to force other countries to be pawns in their political trade wars, so in a sense I think it is good that China are marching forward with their own foundries. Hopefully this will result in more competition too. The foundry business market is not exactly in a healthy spot right now, but I wouldn't be surprised if chips from this foundry ends up mostly being used for devices sold in China though.

 

I do agree, However I don't know what scares me more, what the US can do with technology or what the potential of china is with the same tech manufacturing abilities. 

[thechinchinsong]

15 hours ago, 05032-Mendicant-Bias said:

The pandemics and geopolitical tensions have spurred EU, USA, China to funnel tens of billions to Intel, TSMC and Samsung to build local fabs. We might enjoy an oversupply of leading edge chips five years down the line thanks to all this government subsized expansion of capacity.

I guess that's one silver lining to the crappy geopolitical fighting of recent years.

15 hours ago, 05032-Mendicant-Bias said:

The image below is a ST microelectronics wafer I have at home (I think it's some kind of MEMS). ST guys brought a batch of defective wafers with them when they came to the uni and allowed us to take them.

MEMS chips are pretty cool. I remember seeing wafers a professor brought for digital design class. Even stuff on really old processes look magical in person.

[williamcll]

19 hours ago, mr moose said:

 

I do agree, However I don't know what scares me more, what the US can do with technology or what the potential of china is with the same tech manufacturing abilities. 

Quick reminder that military processors don't tend to use small nodes anyway.

[mr moose]

5 hours ago, williamcll said:

Quick reminder that military processors don't tend to use small nodes anyway.

I wasn't even thinking about military. 

 

Having put some more thought into it though, I think you might be surprised how much modern military need newer/faster computers for all manner of things outside of conventional military dailies.   Their design and research departments will be modeling complex devices from rockets and chemical reactions to aircraft and armor.

[Delicieuxz]

I don't think this is enough new information to make a thread about it, but China reportedly is also working on 5nm now.

 

SMIC Mass Produces 14nm Nodes, Advances To 5nm, 7nm

Shanghai confirms 14-nm chips being mass produced now

Quote

Shanghai-based firms have achieved mass production of semiconductors with 14-nm process and made breakthroughs in 90-nm lithography machines, 5-nm etching machines, 12-inch large silicon wafers, central processing units and 5G chips, Wu Jincheng, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Digitalization, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

 

It marks the first official recognition of the ability of Chinese companies to mass produce 14-nm chips, Xiang Ligang, an independent technology analyst, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

 

The validation also comes as a powerful response to an expanded US blockade on high-end chip exports to China, which will only accelerate China's breakthroughs in core technology, experts said.

 

"The broader the US blockades are, the faster that China will research and develop its own technology," Xiang said.

 

Quote

With the completion of Shanghai's industry cluster for the 14-nm chips, more advanced projects in the 7- and 5-nm processes will be accelerated, Chen said.

 

[porina]

That reminds me, saw this on the original "7nm" claims.

 

 

[StDragon]

Asianometry is a fantastic YT channel with regards to insights into the semiconducting industry.
 

 

[thechinchinsong]

The way they name their nodes is misleading. SMIC N+1 (which some call 7nm) is comparable to 10nm and 12nm+ class nodes from Intel/TSMC while N+2 (which some call 5nm) is closer to the Intel and TSMC 7nm nodes although probably still behind in certain parameters. If you thought TSMC and Intel had confusing naming schemes between their nodes, wait until you try to figure out SMIC's in relation to everyone else's.

[DaRk0]

Glad to see other countries are making breakthroughs in chip design and manufacturing.

Ultimately this will contribute to more multipolar world where smaller guys can't just be blackmailed into submission because they chose to develop their own independent foreign policy and find themselves slapped with sanctions from the US and the crowd.

 

Breakthroughs are done in payment systems as well which will rival SWIFT, Visa and MasterCard - meaning except from technology perspective, it will also be harder to isolate countries by denying them access to SWIFT.

 

I was hoping for these kind of breakthroughs years ago, I just didn't expect they will be coming so soon.