On how the NSA can be generations ahead

[J.A. Terranson]

On Sat, 31 Jul 2004, Major Variola (ret) wrote:

> Tyler D asked about how the NSA could be so far ahead.
> Besides their ability to make 2" sq. chips at 10% yield (not
> something a commercial entity could get away with)

What, exactly, would be the point of doing this?

> they can also *thin and glue* those chips into say stacks
> of 5 thinned die.

As easily as you could do this to high efficiency chips.

> 2" sq = 4 x performance

How do you figure 4x performance on a 2" chip?  Most of the chip
performance is tied to the total distance that signals must traverse
across the chip surface.

> 5 thinned die with GHz vias = 20 x performance.

with any chip, regardless of design.

> Both are uneconomical but feasible.  Get it?

No.

> Any questions?

Yes.  See above.

-- 
Yours,

J.A. Terranson
sysadmin at mfn.org
0xBD4A95BF

  "...justice is a duty towards those whom you love and those whom you do
  not.  And people's rights will not be harmed if the opponent speaks out
  about them."      Osama Bin Laden
	- - -

  "There aught to be limits to freedom!"    George Bush
	- - -

Which one scares you more?