Afzal Ahmad

Andrew Wagner × Afzal Ahmad × Jordan Nanos

SMIC’s N+3 is a meaningful DUV-constrained density step—M0 shrank more than 15% and SRAM could be 10–20% smaller—but it still carries yield and performance compromises versus EUV-enabled leading edge.STEEL’s teardown found Kirin 9030 adds a second Tiny Core to its NPU, while Huawei’s roughly 1.5-micron hybrid-bonded “logic folding” could avoid post-N+3 yield and cost pain, pending evidence beyond Huawei’s efficiency claim.