People are finally starting to see it my way. Thank God for both of X-bits' articles yesterday, they clear up what's been evident for months. From SiON being a failure at <45nm to GF canceling 32nm bulk to compete with TSMC at 28nm; those articles are quotable victories.
40nm was what TSMC 'aimed' for when producing the 45/40nm node. While designs were taken for 45nm, all manufacturing was switched to 40nm as that planning made it possible to pursue on equal ground (minus the fact SiON gets steadily worse at <45nm, which they obviously didn't factor in). Since it became (or was planned) as their full node, everything moved a (half) step forward, and TSMC has said as-much since 40nm production. I fully believe 32nm to have been an optical shrink, or a half-node, as nothing was going to be changed other than what usually changes on a half-node. It was still SiON-only, and was again ALWAYS destined to fail for all that reason. HKMG is crucial to <45nm processes for all the reasons TSMC's 40nm is messed up and 32nm would've been worse. Transistor variability, leakage, etc. I could link to articles with engineering folks saying this since before 40nm production, but that would be irrelevant at this point. TSMC has always planned to finally fix their next full node, 28nm, which is far too late to start on HKMG. Arguments about what is and what isn't a full-node are semantics. You can go by what they call and based a full node on (40,28,22) or what 'standards' call a full node (45,32,22). What TSMC did is what TSMC did. The whole SiON fiasco coupled with their first HKMG risk production starting supposedly end of Q3 when GF/Intel tested/are testing them for an eternity before production truly makes me question WTF TSMC is doing. Are they incompetent and refuse to learn from their proven optimistic failures, or just trying to put on a nice PR face of lies? I'm largely leaning towards the former. They're obviously trying stay ahead, but if they continue those decisions above any semblance of practicality, they are going to implode once GF is in the game.