> No one beyond chip nerds like myself ever really hear or care about node stepping...
Sadly not the case. There are two important, and probably more important constituancies.
First is analysts, market and financial analysts. I have spoken with some really good ones, some of whom came from their respective industries and some of whom didn't but nonetheless really knew their stuff. And I've known some who never really understood but grasped at things that looked scientifish and ran with it. Sadly this latter group outnumber the former group. Analysists cause stock prices to go up and down and often set the consensus that is adopted in the press.
And the second constituency is, at the end of the day, the one that matters: consumers: the people who spend money on the product. And most of them get their info from the consensus opinion as they can't possibly have expertise on everything you need to know (nobody can).
It's stupid that so much rides on this arcane technical question but in this case Intel is reaping the whirlwind it sowed: they put part of their highly technical product line right in front of the consumer in ads and stickers on the products. Now the consensus on the street, fair or not, is that they are behind the times.
True about analysts, but any who don't understand the node naming incongruence between Intel and TSMC/Samsung have no business opining on these companies, and as harsh as it is to say this, investors who blindly listen to them without doing a bit more vetting kind of get what they deserve.
Sadly not the case. There are two important, and probably more important constituancies.
First is analysts, market and financial analysts. I have spoken with some really good ones, some of whom came from their respective industries and some of whom didn't but nonetheless really knew their stuff. And I've known some who never really understood but grasped at things that looked scientifish and ran with it. Sadly this latter group outnumber the former group. Analysists cause stock prices to go up and down and often set the consensus that is adopted in the press.
And the second constituency is, at the end of the day, the one that matters: consumers: the people who spend money on the product. And most of them get their info from the consensus opinion as they can't possibly have expertise on everything you need to know (nobody can).
It's stupid that so much rides on this arcane technical question but in this case Intel is reaping the whirlwind it sowed: they put part of their highly technical product line right in front of the consumer in ads and stickers on the products. Now the consensus on the street, fair or not, is that they are behind the times.