Who cares about nm size? Do you buy the camera with the highest MB pixel count, or do you get the one with a good aperture and optics that produces the best photo quality? Based on the specs AM is about to release chips that are over 2x efficient as their competitors 20nm chips. If competitors want to spend a boat load of money to do 14nm nodes, then I say they can knock themselves out.
How would a 40nm AM chip compare to a 2nd or 3rd gen 14nm BitFury chip? Who cares about nm size? Everybody with a scrap a sense because it allows you to increase the number of transistors in the same size package or produce a smaller, more power efficient chip. Is process size everything? No but to pretend it's meaningless is just silly. A highly efficient design on a 14nm process would completely destroy AM's 40nm chip. Is such a chip available now? No but 2.5 years from now though, there will be far better designs than AM's 40nm chip. That's how technological progress works.
If you think that's clear, then tell me when gen 4 chips will be released, based on that information. All that that paragraph say is that AM will try to double the number of transistors every 2 years while making the chip more efficient.
Well I think it is about as clear as it can be. It means they aren't hanging up the towel after gen3. Gen3 isn't even taped out yet but you want a specific date when gen4 is going to be done? Please...
I don't want a specific date, I want a rough estimate in order for those numbers to be meaningful. It doesn't matter though because those numbers posted are pure bullshit given that it would take decades to produce that many chips. Then again, I could be completely wrong and it may be perfectly possible to produce and package 14-55 wafers per day.