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