China seems to have figured out how to make 7nm chips despite US sanctions
- Reference: 1658512509
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/07/22/china_smic_7nm_chips/
- Source link:
This is based on findings from American semiconductor analyst firm [1]TechInsights , which recently bought a cryptocurrency-mining ASIC manufactured by SMIC and found that it uses a 7nm process after doing a study of the chip's die. The ASIC is designed by a company called MinerVa, which has been mass producing the chip since July 2021, [2]according to its website.
TechInsights said SMIC's 7nm process appears to be a "close copy" of the one used by Taiwanese foundry giant TSMC. However, the firm said the custom chip was likely a "steppingstone" for SMIC achieving a "true 7nm process" that includes both scaled logic and memory bitcells.
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The reason for this is crypto-mining ASICs "likely do not feature the typical bitcell memory that true 7nm technology definition requires," so it's more feasible that the chip is mostly a demonstration of 7nm logic.
[4]
[5]
"This is the most advanced technology product TechInsights has seen from SMIC so far and may be leading to a true 7nm process that incorporates scaled logic and memory bitcells," TechInsights said.
The development will likely be received as bad news for the US government, which has been trying to slow down China's ability to manufacture advanced chips over national security concerns.
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While the 7nm crypto-mining chip is probably meant for consumer or commercial use, the process node will likely end up in military applications in China due to the country's "military-civil fusion" [7]doctrine , where private companies must share their technologies with the nation's military.
[8]Foxconn faces fine for unsanctioned Chinese chip investments
[9]US expands efforts to hamstring China's chipmaking mojo
[10]China 'must seize TSMC' if the US were to impose sanctions
[11]Almost two-thirds of SMIC's Shanghai employees are living at work
China's military technology push was the reason Uncle Sam added SMIC, the Middle Kingdom's largest domestic chipmaker, to the US Treasury Department's entity list in [12]December 2020 . This was meant to prevent SMIC from acquiring certain American technologies. The United States put a specific restriction in place for items that would allow SMIC to manufacture chips at 10nm or lower.
Even before that, the [13]US had successfully pressured the Dutch government to block ASML — the only provider of extreme ultraviolet light (EUV) lithography machines used to make chips on leading-edge nodes, such as 7nm — from selling such systems to China.
Despite these efforts, China has apparently managed to create finished products on a 7nm node.
One reason SMIC can do this is because EUV systems are not mandatory when crafting leading-edge chips. Instead, the chipmaker is likely using an older generation of lithography machines, called deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV), to manufacture 7nm chips.
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There is precedent for this. TSMC and Samsung developed multiple 7nm nodes without EUV before adopting the machines for newer processes. However, this did come "at the cost of increased process complexity and design rule restrictions," TechInsights said. The foundry giants are now using EUV to reduce the complexity and costs of making such chips.
The implication is that while SMIC has the ability to make 7nm chips, it won't be easy. This also means the company will have to deal with more yield issues than if it were using EUV, according to TechInsights.
This is likely one reason the US has reportedly been trying to convince officials in the Netherlands to [15]block ASML from selling DUV systems to China, though DUV is used more widely to produce less advanced chips for a wide range of devices. According to a [16]BusinessKorea report , SMIC plans to invest $11 billion to grow its DUV capacity by 2023.
Chip world watcher Dylan Patel [17]noted another implication for SMIC's 7nm capabilities. He said the development means China is now further ahead than the US or Europe in having 7nm contract chip manufacturing capabilities since American chipmaker Intel has yet to make its 7nm process available to foundry customers.
This isn't great since one of the two other regions with advanced chip foundry capabilities, Taiwan, is facing continuous aggression from China, which has sparked fears that losing access to the island nation's chips [18]could trigger a "deep and immediate recession" in the US. ®
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[1] https://www.techinsights.com/blog/disruptive-technology-7nm-smic-minerva-bitcoin-miner
[2] https://miner-va.com/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YtseASghPibGjKDwjHZEagAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YtseASghPibGjKDwjHZEagAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YtseASghPibGjKDwjHZEagAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YtseASghPibGjKDwjHZEagAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.nbr.org/publication/commercialized-militarization-chinas-military-civil-fusion-strategy/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/15/foxconn_faces_fine_for_unsanctioned/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/05/us_expands_efforts_to_hamstring/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/07/china_must_seize_tsmc/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/28/almost_twothirds_of_smics_shanghai/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/18/smic_us_ban/
[13] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asml-holding-usa-china-insight/trump-administration-pressed-dutch-hard-to-cancel-china-chip-equipment-sale-sources-idUSKBN1Z50HN
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YtseASghPibGjKDwjHZEagAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/05/us_expands_efforts_to_hamstring/
[16] http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=84798
[17] https://semianalysis.substack.com/p/chinas-smic-is-shipping-7nm-foundry?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/21/us_taiwan_chips_china/
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "Close copy"
I don't think that is the point of the article. The point is that SMIC has achieved 7nm in the face all the naysayers that said it would take years to occur. It would appear that China moves faster than you think. And the chip design itself is irrelevant.
Unless there is a Chinese patent, China can make whatever it wants but it can't export it. This effort appears to be a demo.
Re: "Close copy"
Nobody said it would take them years to reach 7nm, only that without access to EUV technology their progress would be limited.
TSMC was double and even quad patterning for some steps to make 7nm chips without EUV. When they were able to use EUV for the most demanding steps it was simpler and cheaper.
SMIC is presumably doing the same thing, except they can't use EUV and make it cheaper. So their chips will be more expensive to make and take longer, and if they hope to progress further they will have to do even more extreme things like 5 or 6 patterning steps. That will be good enough for low volume chips where cost is less of a concern (bitcoin mining or military stuff) but won't be cost effective for mass market stuff like smartphone SoCs.
Another shoe of the US Clyddsdale falls.
Before we get into the banter of Murica's 7nm chips are better than China's 7nm chips, the fact is the USA doesn't FAB andy 7nm chips in Murica. They fab them in Taiwan, China.
SMIC has a 14nm capacity. A double pass can make 7nm chips. These chips are for BITCOIN mining which is illegal in China. The chips consume some 3300 watts so that's a lot of Chinese solar panels to avoid detection. Nevertheless, it pretty much guarantees a global market for these chips and maybe include solar panels.
Once again to recap the most salient argument over narrow gated chips is that only 5% of all semiconductor sales are narrow gated chips. China is focused on the wide gated chips that represent 95% of the global market. But as China is noted for its relentless march forward, SMIC now has 7nm chips which are in the narrow gated range. As always the Chinese development comes sooner than expected, is always then mocked for being not as good as other narrow gated Fab out of Taiwan. Then why all the FUSS?
The Fuss simply proves the US and UK approach of blocking technology to China simply doesn't work. The US and UK have done everything to stop SMIC and Huawei and failed. What they have done is caused China to grind toward decoupling from the US and UK. China is the largest buyer of chips so when the largest buyer wants to dump you, that's not a good sign. And anyone who thinks their semiconductor products are indispensable is crazy. Aside from Fab, fabless designers such as Alibaba are creating extraordinary chips. The only missing link is FAB. And the biggest FAB company speaks Chinese. TSCM's largest client in Mainland China. The US in fact is a very small customer, the UK even smaller.
ARM is not without competition. RISC-V has a much-reduced instruction set and several big advantages over ARM especially since it is open source.
I can hardly wait for the grand celebration of the US 53 Billion in FAB subsidies. A FAB plant will take 5 years to open. In five years, China will likely have EUV lithography or something better. Let's remember the loudest voice in those screaming for Gov handouts is INTEL a company that has had 80 billion in stock buybacks for nothing, and failed at both 5G and failed at 10 nm gates... but somehow all that is forgotten and INTEL is going to lead the charge.
But, and I have asked this many times with no answers... Why would any fabless designer bring their proprietary designs to INTEL for FAB? IT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! What is going to happen is you will lose 95% of the wide gated market and likely 50% of the narrow gated market. No US FAB or US Chips will end up in Chinese smartphones as this plays out.
You are not going to beat CHINA... you couldn't beat Vietnam or even Afghanistan or ISIS or the Taliban or the North Koreans. You talk big about Iran but you won't go near them. And while you were sleeping Turkey has become a modern tech warfare powerhouse.
Even Egypt and Israel found that if they traded with each other they could find mutual benefit. But you have this contingent of paranoid nitwits in both the UK and the US, some that post here but mostly just downvote because their posts get destroyed.
Technology is occupied by mostly intelligent people, Politicians are paranoid cornpone southern fried idiots and Union shills. Wouldn't it be amusing if INTEL's gov sponsored FAB plant in OHIO goes UNION? But they could build chips for GM. Yup... look for the Union Label and sell short.
Re: Another shoe of the US Clyddsdale falls.
-> And anyone who thinks their semiconductor products are indispensable is crazy.
This is true, and the point is lost on those in favour of trade barriers and sanctions. In a nutshell, if something can be built it can be built. It doesn't matter if that thing is a nut and bolt or a microchip. Knowing something can be built is already half the battle.
Re: Another shoe of the US Clyddsdale falls.
Sanctions only really work if you also expel or kill all foreign nationals, especially any Chinese. These types of policies are typically extremely unpopular (and not only with the Chinese) and unlikely to be put into practice. Otherwise
Chess.
US and China can remain frenemies as long as the balance of the current stalemate lasts. If SMIC and the other mainland fabs can play catchup then China not only has more lee-way to act, it has incentive to act as it would benefit from destroying it's competition. The fact that a non-trivial part of the Chinese economy is dependent on Taiwanese industry is both a reason China can't let go of, but also can't invade the island nation.
So the consequences of their fabs playing catch-up may be dire indeed. The indispensable Taiwanese industry is the main reason China can't carpet bomb them into submission. That becomes more a attractive prospect if they are just the competition.
That said, miner ASICs are a pretty shady corner of the Chinese market, one that doesn't appear to have the broad or tacit support of the government. I'd try to keep a close eye where other parts start showing up, as it's possible black market ASICs were fabbed using bits from multiple suppliers and packaged on the 3rd shift at one of the properly equipped SMIC plants. Similar things were happening to Cisco gear back in the day.
Re: Chess.
Competing with China is hard to do in terms of technology. Do you sell them everything they want or refuse and force them to develop their own? Either way, they will end up out competing you one way or the other.
Sexual Stealing
Send enough hot spies to tempt nerdy engineers and you're bound to get what you need.
"Close copy"
TSMC needs to look closely at their staff, or former staff, to see how close a copy it was.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/tip-iceberg-taiwans-spy-catchers-hunt-chinese-poachers-chip-talent-2022-04-08/