And Now Something Off The Left Field.

Not really. But then again, while being NOT-related in any way to a manufacturing of semiconductors, I do follow those news and, as you may recall, I am constantly on record that Russian Ministry of Defense is well supplied (due to cannibalizing of washing machines, I guess) with all kinds of microchips, including ASIC and what have you. All this, due to boutique production which is fully localized. Otherwise, one may ask, how did Russians manage to manufacture now their satellites with 100% Russian element base and how come that Russians openly state that their NTSUO main supercomputer is more powerful than anything Pentagon's NMCC has. 

The answer is simple. Read this (in Russian). 

Российский литограф 7 нм от ИПФ РАН! Литограф от НЦФМ за 2-3 года! Понеслось!

Translation: Russian lithograph for 7 nm from Institute of  Applied Physics of Russian Academy of Sciences. Lithograph from National Center of Physics and Mathematics in 2-3 years. Off we go! 

As it turned out, Russia had working prototype for 30 nm in... 2011. 

After that, all data following 2011 was... removed. Now a puzzle. Look what newly created National Center of Physics and Mathematics is (in Russian)? Or, rather, who runs the whole show? Yep, it is in Sarov and it is, of course, Rosatom. Now, lets go back to 2011 and ask ourselves a question--WHY Sergei Kirienko who headed Rosatom from 2005 through 2016, and now is the second person, after Vaino, in Putin's Staff, was awarded in 2018 the highest honor of the Hero of Russian Federation, together with Yuri Borisov, with a vague description "for achievements in developing nuclear industry." And, naturally, weapons (in Russian). 

So, let's summarize. In 2011 Russia already has a working prototype lithograph for 30 nm structures. Then, in 2014 Russia unveils NTsUO and claims that supercomputer in it is way more powerful than Pentagon's, then Rosatom effectively builds Russia's composite materials industry, then we have some new reactors coming on-line, and then, of course, we have hypersonic revolution in 2018. Just this short list tells you that this whole thing, requiring an immense computing power, hasn't been done on Pentium 4 processors alone. But where did Russia get those hi-end processors and, in the end, stated recently that fully Russian-made lithography is coming very soon. Well, we are now getting some whiff of the proceedings, which a few years ago I named a "revelation mode". 

As I am on record constantly, one has to be able to read news properly and not miss all those important details. But above all, we need to understand how truly high level strategic planning is done and why Russia was able to withstand all Western sanctions and sabotage and, in fact, benefited from that strategically. One has to assume with a very high probability that modelling of technological, industrial, military and, in the end, geopolitical trends has been done on something which we didn't see yet. What is known now that it is some extremely capable computation on something which is fully domestically made. But the signs and clues have been around for a long time now. How do you think you design something like 3M22 Zircon or Peresvet with Avangard. I guess, we've got part of the answer. But I am on record, the nation which produces all that will produce modern chip industry sooner or later. Looks like it is going to be sooner, and don't tell me I didn't warn you;)