btw, the Huawei Whisper commented on this. It definately includes 14nm process. The next step is 10nm. No reason to include 14nm in his phrasing if it cannot do 12/14nm process of SMIC.So how come Caijing quotes the Huawei executive that they made tools "above 14nm" in collaboration with Chinese EDA companies and Reuters spins it that they have made tools for 14nm? I mean, Reuters is usually better than this.
"above 14nm" means no FinFET. It is probably only for planar transistors up to 28nm and the like. Which is what makes sense for Huawei, since they have like a single factory in the whole of China which can make FinFET for them right now. While there are many factories which can make planar transistor processes.
At this point, I'm really curious what's left to replace American suppliers in the 14nm process for SMIC. And how close AMEC is able to replace Lam products there.