Chips & Silicon

Fabs, Process Nodes & Accelerators. Published every Tuesday, here and by RSS.

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Process & Fabs

China crafts working 3nm gate-all-around transistors without EUV — stacked nanosheets target 3nm without EUV, but full node remains distant

Chinese researchers have successfully fabricated working 3nm gate-all-around (GAA) transistors using stacked nanosheets without relying on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. While this demonstrates a significant laboratory milestone, achieving a full, high-yield production node using alternative lithography remains a distant challenge.

Why it matters — Demonstrates that multi-patterning or alternative lithography techniques can physically define 3nm GAA structures, though scaling this to high-volume manufacturing without EUV remains economically and technically challenging.

Tom's Hardware · 22 September 2026 · Read the original →

AI Accelerators

Huawei shelves global AI chip rollout as China's own demand outstrips supply — 15,488-chip Atlas clusters leverage optical networking to counter Nvidia, scales to 120 EFLOPS

Huawei has paused the international rollout of its AI processors due to overwhelming domestic demand in China. The company's massive Atlas clusters, which scale up to 120 EFLOPS across 15,488 chips, rely heavily on advanced optical networking to bypass US-led hardware restrictions and rival Nvidia's performance.

Why it matters — Highlights how optical interconnects are being leveraged at scale (15,488-chip clusters) to compensate for individual silicon performance deficits imposed by export controls.

Tom's Hardware · 22 September 2026 · Read the original →

Memory & Storage

AI Demand Will Keep DRAM Market Under Pressure

The relentless expansion of AI infrastructure is consuming massive amounts of memory, leading to persistent DRAM supply shortages. Industry analysts project that these supply constraints and elevated pricing will continue well into 2027.

Why it matters — Hardware planners must brace for multi-year DRAM supply tightness and elevated BOM costs, as AI server demands continue to crowd out standard DRAM capacity.

EE Times · 22 September 2026 · Read the original →

Process & Fabs

Intel Puts High-NA EUV into Production, but Stitching Still Has Something to Prove

Intel Foundry has officially transitioned ASML's high numerical aperture (High-NA) EUV lithography into volume production. However, the industry still faces the complex engineering challenge of stitching together larger chip designs that exceed the reticle limit of High-NA systems.

Why it matters — High-NA EUV introduces a halved reticle size, forcing designers to master die-stitching techniques to manufacture larger, high-performance chips without sacrificing yield.

EE Times · 22 September 2026 · Read the original →

Reading

India Hardens Its Cyber Defenses

When militants launched a terror attack in Pahalgam, a popular tourist destination in Indian-administered Kashmir, in April 2025, India’s government attributed the violence to Pakistani insurgents and

Why it matters — Published by EE Times on 15 Sep 2026.

EE Times · 15 September 2026 · Read the original →

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Physics remains remarkably indifferent to the scale of the capital expenditure.

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