alt Hacker NewsChip density increase is slowing down. Since N10, density scaling has been 60-80%. N3 to N2 is only 20%. And now N2 to A14 is also only 20%.
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Is the increase in wafer cost higher than the density increase? If so, that means that the cost per transistor is also going up.
Yes but considering N10 was fabricated with DUV lithography right before the shift to EUV I'm not sure how fair that comparison is. That being said the density scaling of N10 nodes compared to predecessors using the same lithography technique was much higher than we have seen since with the EUV nodes. Density scaling is the most meaningful comparison metric, but it doesn't take into account additional technology developments.
A lot of that is the lack of SRAM scaling. There’s still quite a bit of improvements in the back end (metal traces). That aside, if foundries adopted say a 1T-1C SRAM we’d see a pretty rapid density doubling
20% growth then 20% again still seems pretty good to me though. I guess compounded that is a 44% increase N3 to A14 which also starts to look much better if you zoom out a bit. I mean 44% more density since a few years ago seems, if not massive, not insignificant, like you will definitely notice it.