It's been decades since published node sizes had any connection to actual feature size. Sadly this is just how it works in the semiconductor industry now.
It's been decades since published node sizes had any connection to actual feature size. Sadly this is just how it works in the semiconductor industry now.
We've already been through years of "7nm isn't actually 7nm" across different fabs - completely different measurement conventions, none corresponding to real feature sizes. Now sub-1nm? If it is real then at that scale we're probably in the several atom width territory.
Who started it?
https://www.eejournal.com/article/no-more-nanometers/
Sometime around 2011 when Intel named their process node 22nm which the gate length was 26nm
Your article says it started earlier:
>So essentially, since 1997, the node name has not been a representation of any actual dimension on the chip, and it has erred in both directions by almost a factor of 2.
Smart money would be on the first person who realized that the expertise required to understand the technical details had grown beyond that possessed by 51%+ of stock investing (trading?) population as weighted by transaction volume.