NASA won't use small nodes for their chips. It's part of the...

NASA won't use small nodes for their chips. It's part of the radiation protection. Basically, alpha particles (radiation) are the biggest radiation particles. I don't know if everyone remembers playing around with radiation sources and geiger counters in school science lab. But Alpha particles (used in smoke detectors) are big enough that a piece of paper will block them. That's why an alpha source will only harm you if you physically ingest it.

If you think of a computer chip like a piece of woven cloth. The smaller the node size, the tighter the weave and the finer the threads.

Nasa basically make computer chips like hessian sack. You hold the sack up to the light and the light (alpha particles) pass through. Whereas the smaller 3nm nodes are like high thread count silk sheets, with no gaps for light to pass through.

A 90nm chip has more "space" in it for alpha particles to pass through it without bouncing off the transistors and causing the chip to shut down.

It's slower and uses more power, but its more reliable.