For example i notice that the latest chips are 3 nm & below, & over the last decade i’ve seen it shrink little by little. What is it about this process that more money needs to be poured into each die shrink, & why couldn’t we just jump from 90nm to 3nm instead pf 65nm etc etc?
In: Engineering
I want you to build a doghouse. You have never done it before. I give you materials and tools and tell you to have at it.
Your first attempt takes a long time, looks like crap, will probably collapse on the dog, and wastes a lot of material.
I tell you to keep trying.
Your fifth attempt probably looks a lot better, is more structurally sound, and doesn’t waste too much material.
By the 10th attempt you’ve really got it down. You only use as much as you need, it looks good and is solidly built, and takes a reasonable amount of time. From this point out every one you build is identical to the one before and takes the same amount of time.
Now I tell you I want a two story house for my cat. You take everything you’ve learned and apply it, but its a slightly different process and you still make mistakes. It probably takes you 5 attempts this time to really get it figured out.
This is pretty much the process you go through when building anything. Its incremental progress. If you try to go directly from A -> E and skip all the in between steps, the chances of E failing, or taking a lot longer than you expected, or costing a lot more, are much higher. This also means that the only product you have to sell is A, until you are able to make E work. Meanwhile your competitor has introduced generation B and C and your sales on A are plummeting while you invest everything in making E work.
If instead you go A, B, C, D, E your chances of succeeding at each step are much higher, and you can do it faster and at a lower cost. And then you can put B on the market and sell it while you start to develop generation C,D,E.
Latest Answers