Re:Ask HN: Why did stack-based CPUs lose out?
by numpad0 on Sunday January 01, 2023 @09:56AM
(#34206713)
> couldn't NASA use these for redundancy?
> how much more resilient are older processes with larger feature size compared to modern 6/7nm ?
If I may paraphrase your questions, I think you are trying to ask "isn't rad hardening a bit overrated? are space chips that good?" - and a Wikipedia edit[1] that has kept most of its original form for more than 15 years have been answering that question thanklessly:
> Hardened chips are often manufactured on insulating substrates instead of the usual semiconductor wafers. Silicon oxide (SOI) and sapphire (SOS) are commonly used. While vanilla chips can withstand between 5 and 10 krad, SOI and SOS can survive doses many orders of magnitude greater.
So the answer is, if 10krad(in lifetime) and [unspecified] events/seconds is enough for your requirements, maybe you don't need rad-hard chips. If your requirements are going to be magnitude grater(you can math it from data), then you might want it, and yes, there are differences in orders of magnitudes.
> how much more resilient are older processes with larger feature size compared to modern 6/7nm ?
If I may paraphrase your questions, I think you are trying to ask "isn't rad hardening a bit overrated? are space chips that good?" - and a Wikipedia edit[1] that has kept most of its original form for more than 15 years have been answering that question thanklessly:
> Hardened chips are often manufactured on insulating substrates instead of the usual semiconductor wafers. Silicon oxide (SOI) and sapphire (SOS) are commonly used. While vanilla chips can withstand between 5 and 10 krad, SOI and SOS can survive doses many orders of magnitude greater.
So the answer is, if 10krad(in lifetime) and [unspecified] events/seconds is enough for your requirements, maybe you don't need rad-hard chips. If your requirements are going to be magnitude grater(you can math it from data), then you might want it, and yes, there are differences in orders of magnitudes.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Radiation_hardeni...