Posted on 02/22/2015 4:47:42 PM PST by ckilmer
Eventually, the conventional ways of manufacturing microprocessors, graphics chips, and other silicon components will run out of steam. According to Intel researchers speaking at the ISSCC conference this week, however, we still have headroom for a few more years.
Intel plans to present several papers this week at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco, one of the key academic conferences for papers on chip design. Intel senior fellow Mark Bohr will also appear on a panel Monday night to discuss the challenges of moving from today's 14nm chips to the 10nm manufacturing node and beyond.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
Nope. Investments are massive. Will never be free.
Moore’s law was never a law. It was just an observation he made. Somehow it has been spun in to “law” over the years.
I would never say never.
How much computing power is there in today’s cellphones, when there are 2 billion cellphones, each of them contributing at least 8 hours a day of computing time and each of them has more computer power than a super computer from 2003?
Actually, EUV is not being used yet in production.
Throughput and yield are the gating issues.
What they are doing is dual printing or in the case of gates, quad printing using 193nm light source and interference patterns.
14nm requires alternate mask layers to keep from shorting or causing opens.
Intel is really the only company with a stable 14nm process, TSMC and GF are just claiming they have a valid process.
The big problem right now is costs of manufacturing is going up while ASP is going down. Not the way to make $$$ in semiconductors.
BFL
I’m wondering if these chips are still 2D, and if in the future they might move to 3D chips, much like circuit boards went multi-layer? In that case the conversation would change from shrinking area to shrinking volume.
Thanks for that information. I thought that EUV was up and running.
It’s remarkable that they are able to use 193nm light to generate features of 22 nm and smaller.
I heard of interference masks, but I didn’t really take the time to understand them. I thought they were essentially holograms; in effect image Fourier transforms of the desired features in direct space.
Only a serious insider would know what is really going on in the semi world.
The big debate now is deciding to keep working on EUV or move to E-beam lithography.
E-beam works but is too slow for full production.
The problems you mentioned about EUV is correct but there are even more problems out there to solve.
I think the closest fab to being able to solve these problems is the new one being built in Portland OR.
If they can’t do it, no one can.
“Multi core / multithreaded makes a HUGE difference at the server farm delivering your video.”
I could certainly see that :-). All I was getting at is that the general public rarely makes use of multicore apps ... for now at least. They certainly make use of multicore processors via the OS, but I was talking about SW designed to make use of multiple processors (like video delivery applications / transcoding video from one format to another )
;’)
Intel is the only company “shipping” 14nm.
The rest of the planet is 4-5 years behind Intel.
Samsung is probably next in line.
TSMC
Then WAY behind is Global Foundry.
As long as the sexbot can remember my name for once, I guess it's all good.
I suspect it will involve nanotechnology! Up and coming, all things we use to know as true are changing as we speak.
Ah but as a law, it has held true! Most scientific laws do not hold up. Of course, this is and was a non fact but it really has held up and continues to hold promise with nanotechnology.
Do we need to care about Moore’s law any more? It’s always good to see progress, but 10 years ago, 1080p video was a challenge at the high end of computing, now, my phone shoots and edits it.
I remember upgrading constantly, because the upgrade would save significant time. In the early days of Photoshop it could take a couple minutes to render a filter that is instantaneous today.
Power consumption is the key issue these days. Give me a processor that is fast enough, but has battery life for all-day use.
Moore never proclaimed a law. It is one of those things that media assumed was a law. It is all a fabrication from the press. There has never been “moores” law.
Heh, of course. But you know that it just seems to continue to come true don’t you? Computers continue to advance at paces that are unbelievable and with the upcoming nanotechnology, it will continue to expand at the same incredible rate...so yes, Moore’s law continues to be true!
If you don’t like Moore’s law, then lets call it the law of extreme advances in technology. Works for me. So far, either way, that law (okay not law but call it advances) continues to be true and excites us all!
You on the other hand seem to be a pessimist looking for a reason not to understand what is going on in the computer world! No problem, many are just like you. You and they can take these advances as normal and continue with your lives... Others will note these advances as breakthroughs - or Moore’s law at work - heh.
Software is way behind at this point - blame Microsoft! heh.
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