According to analyst firm TechInsights, Chinese foundry SMIC has begun shipping chips for a Bitcoin miner SoC since July 2021 based on its 7nm process node. SMIC has produced what appears to be an almost flawless 7 nm node despite not having access to sophisticated semiconductor production tools and US restrictions placed on it. As the node develops in SMIC’s labs, this could eventually result in real 7nm logic and memory bitcells. The TechInsights study say that TSMC, Intel, and Samsung have all created technologies that are at least two nodes more advanced than SMIC’s 7nm and significantly more sophisticated. Early in 2020, SMIC first revealed their 7nm node, and later that year, it and partner Innosilicon revealed they had taped out a chip on the N+1 version of the 7nm node. TechInsights describes the SMIC chip in further detail, stating: Due to its basic appearance and small size (4.6 x 4.2 mm), the MinerVa Bitcoin mining chip suggests that SMIC is still in the early phases of chip development. Nevertheless, while the process technology is being improved, these sorts of tiny, basic, and primitive chips frequently act as learning guide.
