IIC Journal of Innovation 10th Edition | Page 40

Keeping Ahead of the Curve with Custom ASICs largely held true over the years with it being pushed to every two years from about 1975 6 . Technology nodes or process nodes are a reference to a semiconductor manufacturing process and the design rules that define the process. Each process node will often enable different circuit architectures. The smaller the technology or process node, the smaller the transistors available and therefore the more integration is possible 7 . The major drivers in pushing the decrease in size of the process nodes available in the foundries has been attributed to the consumer market space. As the demand for more features with smaller, less power-hungry and faster circuitry continues to grow, the requirement for more transistors on chip continues to increase. To meet these requirements, the transistors need to reduce in size thereby forcing the process nodes to reduce in size. According to data published by International Business Strategies and reported by ExtremeTech 8 , the cost of advanced design goes from $28.5M at 65 nanometer (nm) up to $542.2M at 5nm. 600 $542.2M 500 Validation 400 Prototype $297.8M 300 Physical $174.4M 200 Verification $70.3M 100 0 Software $28.5M v 65nm $37.7M $51.3M 40nm 28nm $106.3M Architecture IP Qualification 22nm 16nm 10nm 7nm Technology Node Figure 2: IBS data on the cost of Advanced Design 6 Progress in Digital Integrated Electronics, IEEE Technical Digest 1975 7 https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/technology_node 8 J.Hruska, As Chip Design Costs Skyrocket, 3nm Process Node Is in Jeopardy https://www.extremetech.com/computing/272096-3nm-process-node IIC Journal of Innovation - 36 - 5nm