TSMC sees path to 2nm or even 1nm node manufacturing

TSMC VP of corporate research Philip Wong revealed they're currently researching 3nm process technology and that the company sees a path to 2nm and even 1nm manufacturing. But do these numbers even mean anything?

As followers of semiconductor technology probably know, the number assigned to a new process technology is little more than marketing these days. Wong even admitted this, by stating that TSMC's node naming schemes indeed to do not have some relevance to silicon features etched into the wafer.

There was a time when the technology node number meant something, but now it's just a brand name, similar to car models:

“It used to be the technology node, the node number, means something, some features on the wafer,” says Philip Wong in his Hot Chips 31 keynote. “Today, these numbers are just numbers. They’re like models in a car – it’s like BMW 5-series or Mazda 6. It doesn’t matter what the number is, it’s just a destination of the next technology, the name for it. So, let’s not confuse ourselves with the name of the node with what the technology actually offers.”