> Samsung, for one, plans to ship its 10nm finFET technology by year’s end.
> TSMC will move into 10nm production in early 2017
> Intel will move into 10nm production by mid-2017
>“Not all 10nm technologies are the same,” said Mark Bohr, a senior fellow and director of process architecture and integration at Intel. “It’s now becoming clear that what other companies call a ‘10nm’ technology will not be as dense as Intel’s 10nm technology. We expect that what others call ‘7nm’ will be close to Intel’s 10nm technology for density.”
>It wasn’t always like that. Traditionally, chipmakers scaled the key transistor specs by 0.7X at each node. This, in turn, roughly doubles the transistor density at each node.
>Intel continues to follow this formula. At 16nm/14nm, though, others deviated from the equation from a density standpoint. For example, foundry vendors introduced finFETs at 16nm/14nm, but it incorporated a 20nm interconnect scheme.
Yes, that's what a lay reading gets you - and why I was disappointed with the article.