Tracking the Progress and Practicality of Introduction of Semiconductor Products

In reaction to this article:  GMO Internet to Enter Bitcoin Mining Business with 7nm BitCoin Hashing Chip   The press release claims that GMO Internet will field a 7nm based miner chip in 2017. 

I consulted with one of my friends who is an IC design engineer.  He steered me to the wikipedia entry for the various technology levels which you can see below in the table.  It is possible this company will have the design almost complete and ready to submit when the fab facilities are ready to accept commercial orders.  However since that is in 2017 it is hard to see how a product emerges from this process before the end of 2018 given how many stumbles occur in all forms of electronic design including IC design.  My guess?  Product is released in early 2019 at the most optimistic.

Semiconductor manufacturing processes
10 µm – 1971 6 µm – 1974 3 µm – 1977 1.5 µm – 1982 1 µm – 1985 800 nm – 1989 600 nm – 1994 350 nm – 1995 250 nm – 1997 180 nm – 1999 130 nm – 2001 90 nm – 2004 65 nm – 2006 45 nm – 2008 32 nm – 2010 22 nm – 2012 14 nm – 2014 10 nm – 2017 7 nm  – ~2018 5 nm – ~2020
Half-nodes