Comments by "Anders Juel Jensen" (@andersjjensen) on "China's 7nm Chips: SMIC N+2" video.

  1. N4 is just a normal half step. The reason they specifically mention N6 is that it's a quite cost optimized half step of N7. That is, it doesn't improve much on density, but it is 100% design compatible with N7, has better yields and costs less because some critical layers have been moved from multi patterning on DUV to single layer EUV. Don't quote me on it, but I've heard a 20% reduction in wafer price with yields in the 99.xx% range while cutting 5 days off the lead time.
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  2. So.. SMIC is at it again copying TSMCs homework. My guess is there's a reason they didn't make a big publicity splash out of it: 1) Their yields are not competitive yet, and 2) If they get competitive TSMC is going to sue them in every other country than China.
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  3. China, despite the rhetoric, knows full well that if they invade Taiwan they'll be starting WW3. Even Japan has publicly said if they will protect Taiwan with all their might if it comes to that.
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