03-20-2016, 04:02 PM
pdq wrote:
[quote=Onamuji]
[quote=sekker]
Commercial ARM chips using a 7nm fab process.
http://www.arm.com/about/newsroom/arm-an...r-high.php
...In about 10 years.
If you believe the various rumor sites, it sounds like 10 nm later _this year_ ( altho perhaps not soon enough for the iPhone 7) and 7nm in 2018, possibly in time for the iP8.
There's no doubt that they're trying. But so far, there are very few working 7nm chips in existence even in labs. Production is extremely difficult. EUV has a wavelength of 13.5nm. 10nm is not exactly easy to produce.
What's most likely to happen is what many manufacturers did when they hit the 14nm bump. They marketed larger chips as if they were smaller chips. The branding suggested that the chip was 14nm, but the fab was 22nm. Few people noticed the difference.
I expect "7nm" chips shipping in a 2018-2019 timeframe. But anything sold on the consumer-markets will be 14nm and 10nm chips being sold as 7nm. If there's a breakthrough then maybe we'll see real 7nm chips by 2020. Otherwise, mid-2020s.