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14nm and 7nm are NOT what you think it is - Visiting Tescan Part 3/3

14nm and 7nm are NOT what you think it is - Visiting Tescan Part 3/3 on HackerTube: recommended by 1 Hacker News commenter across 1 month, 2020–2021.

der8auer

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Der8auer visits Tescan and uses an electron microscope to compare real transistor sizes on Intel 14nm and AMD 7nm chips. It shows that process node names do not match physical measurements.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN cites it as visual evidence that nm node names are marketing labels and for its neat electron microscope comparison.

people recommended it
1
separate months
1
strong recommendations
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discussed on HN
2020–2021
“Here's a neat video where they use an electron microscope to actually compare the transistor sizes for Intel 14nm and AMD 7nm”
— datagram, Apr 2021, in “Intel 3rd gen Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake): generationally big, competitively small”

What HN commenters said

4 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

datagramApr 2021Recommends

Like others have said, the numbers aren't comparable between manufacturers. Here's a neat video where they use an electron microscope to actually compare the transistor sizes for Intel 14nm and AMD 7nm: ▶ this video

in “Intel 3rd gen Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake): generationally big, competitively small” · View on HN

eceMar 2021Cites it

This reminds me of seeing a part of the chip from a scanning electron microscope: ▶ this video But I wonder how successful these methods are are extracting keys from a TPM or other hardware keys.

in “Pulling Bits from ROM Silicon Die Images: Unknown Architecture” · View on HN

quagSep 2020Cites it

According to this video using an electron scanning microscope on amd and Intel chips, the “7nm” or “10nm” number does not measure anything, and is effectively a process version number for marketing. From memory there is no single number for measuring transistors or efficiency, transistor density is useful, but it doesn’t tell you the performance or power usage. ▶ this video

in “TSMC to Mass Produce Breakthrough 2nm Mbcfet Transistors in 2024” · View on HN

raszSep 2020Cites it

der8auer "14nm and 7nm are NOT what you think it is - Visiting Tescan" ▶ this video for reference "TESCAN is a leading global producer and supplier of scanning electron microscopes, focused ion beam scanning electron microscopes and micro-CT solutions."

in “TSMC to Mass Produce Breakthrough 2nm Mbcfet Transistors in 2024” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Semiconductors & chip manufacturingComputer architecture & CPUs14nm7nmelectron microscopetransistorsintel vs amd