[baybal2]

Short and to the point answers:

>And what exactly is "7nm"?

The size of pixel in an IC, or it used to be so. For convenience, just think that it still is.

>Why can't Intel just buy a "7nm" processor from TSMC?

Intel can dual source fab capacity, (they make part of Atom line at TSMC, part in house) and did so in the past. Besides technicalities, a lot has to do with pride.

[dbcurtis]

At my time at Intel, the company was fab-constrained. Intel ran some parts on outside fabs. The decision as to which ones was easily made by sorting projects in order of gross margin per wafer. Highest margin parts ran on Intel fab, when the fab was full, the project had to hunt down fab capacity elsewhere.