Why did anyone think otherwise?
this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
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Because manufacturing super high tech chips is extremely hard and complicated and basically only a couple companies in the world can do it and they also depend on parts and technology from other companies all over the "western" world. China didnt have anything near this capability. It requires advanced research and knowhow on a million different technologies. So unless China does extensive industrial espionage(which they are trying to do), it's gonna take them like 10+ years to start producing anything relatively modern without needing any external parts/help.
In any case, it remains to be seen if it is actually 7nm. With a new cold war ramping up, China is trying to become self-reliant as much as possible.
Until we get more data/testing from people outside the country, I am going to remain skeptical that it isn't just another chip they re-engraved and changed what your computer will say it is. Doesn't matter which country it is, I don't trust the data unless a neutral 3rd party from outside the country is able to fully confirm whether the claims are true or false.
I'm also skeptical since they had absolutely no PR about it before a US official went over and that (unless it's changed or I am misremembering) Huawei didn't even put out any official stats on the chip itself and instead let the tech bros in country do it instead (which to me screams a little bit of a red flag).
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In another Global Times publication, Chinese analysts labeled N+2 as SMIC's 5nm-class production node about a year ago.
Yet, there are independent proofs from TechInsights that SMIC produced MinerVa Semiconductor Bitcoin mining ASICs on its 7nm-class N+1 technology.
Meanwhile, SMIC's Twinscan NXT:2000i deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography scanners can make chips on 7nm and 5nm technologies, so that the company may have developed a 5nm-class fabrication process.
Huawei's HiSilicon is China's most successful chip designer that has used to adopt TSMC's leading-edge fabrication technologies.
After Huawei lost access to American technologies in 2020, HiSilicon could no longer work with the world's largest contract maker of chips, and it is believed that the parent company helped SMIC to advance its fabrication processes.
Huawei has not commented on the matter, and even state-ran Global Times does not explicitly say that the HiSilicon Kirin 9000S uses SMIC's 5nm-class process technology but prefers to call the information a rumor.
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That's cool, so they are almost not 5 years behind everybody else, unless their 7nm node is actually like Intel's, ie. Bigger number but same density as the competition
China is getting too good at chip manufacturing. That scares imperialists.
Lol, what can the Chinese make that is current with American and Korean designs? Taiwan is #1 chip maker in the world and it isn't the same Chinese as the mainland. The best die sizes the mainland can muster is 10nm, which was 3 generations ago by Intel/AMD standards.
And what company in China can make 7nm? Huawei outsources it's chip fab to SMIC now that TSMC gave them the boot. SMIC can't make anything smaller than 7nm but scaling it for them is hard because their process doesn't use EUV and other next gen western techniques. China is starting from behind and has no chance of catch up because they don't have the tech or knowledge for how to build it.