Just to be clear, this doesn't mean that anything on the die actually measures 0.7nm — it means that it's roughly double the density as the previous node generation. At some point the industry decided to keep talking about "nanometers" even though the actual transistor sizes have been decoupled from the node name for years.
Generations.
Gen Alpha were born since the naming became detached from actual physical size. And parts of Gen Z (before) and Gen Beta (after).
Naming generations is a futile, arbitrary process, whereas the measurement unit for engineering processes should be precise and well defined?
Node sizes have been "generations" for a long time. The number is just the previous number divided by sqrt(2), rounded in an arbitrary direction. Sqrt(2) because reducing each dimension by that number leads to double the density, and it's non-obvious enough to sound like a real measurement
I was saying not just “years”, but generations (approx two, straddling a full one) have passed since the naming reflected anything real.
In hindsight, I phrased that poorly.