Silicon Lacks Clear Metrics

No one number pegs a process

Rick Merritt, EETimes
3/24/2016 11:08 AM EDT

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Analysts differ on who has the best semiconductor process technology, a diversity of views that is understandable given the complexity of the subject and sometimes confusing messages from chip makers themselves.

Intel will be superior to TSMC and Samsung at 10nm as it was at 14nm, says Linley Gwennap of the Linley Group. TSMC’s emerging 10nm process leapfrogs Intel’s 14nm node, and TSMC is now moving at a faster pace than Intel, says G. Dan Hutcheson of VLSI Research. Handel Jones of International Business Strategies believes at 10nm it will be pretty much a tie between Intel and TSMC.

All sides agree multiple variables in how devices are made affect different kinds of chip differently. And they all lay some blame at the feet of marketing departments that often do more to obscure than clarify the situation.

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