TSMC on track for 5nm commercial production in H2 2020

by Mark Tyson on 9 December 2019, 12:21

Tags: TSMC, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), AMD (NYSE:AMD), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

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Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) appears to be continuing its successful march towards its stated goals. In an update to investors on Friday the contract chip making giant outlined its current state of operations and its plans into 2022. As far as we can see TSMC customers are going to maintain their process advantage over the likes of Intel for the foreseeable future.

TSMC's N7 (or 7nm) process is already quite long established, with consumer products such as the 2018 iPhones being among the first to use the chip fabrication technology. AMD rolled out N7 tech based desktop and server CPUs this year and is expected to roll out the first laptop/ APU processors using it early next year. Meanwhile innovative new processors like the AWS Graviton2, and Apple's Arm-based Mac computer processors are said to be TSMC projects.

In a DigiTimes report on the TSMC news, it is claimed that the chip foundry will move N5 to commercial production in H2 next year. It reckons that N5 will be in high demand going through 2020 with smartphone vendors hoping to push widespread adoption of new devices as 5G starts to snowball.

The Street reports that Apple will be in pole position again, using processors built on N5 in its 2020 iPhones. TSMC forecasts that its first N5 processors will deliver about 80 per cent greater transistor density, a 15 per cent improvement in performance, and a 20 per cent improvement in power efficiency relative to the first process for its 7nm node

Moving onwards, TSMC says that its N3 process will see volume production commence in 2022. The company will soon break ground for a 3nm facility. So, two years after its N5 chips become available, partners will be able to start touting the advantages of with new 3nm SoC designs in their devices.

WikiChip provides a good overview of TSMC's progress in an article from November.

Earlier today we saw reports that Intel CEO Bob Swann told investors to expect its 7nm parts to ship in Q4 2021 and be technologically in line with TSMC 5nm output. Intel aims for 5nm commercialisation sometime in H2 2024.

HEXUS Forums :: 10 Comments

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Posted by KultiVator - Mon 09 Dec 2019 16:49
This will please Intel no end ;-)
Posted by 3dcandy - Mon 09 Dec 2019 17:05
Another boot whilst they are down….
Posted by KultiVator - Mon 09 Dec 2019 17:16
Old puter parts - that's all Intel can sell you right now :-P
Posted by rave_alan - Mon 09 Dec 2019 21:41
Intel invests much more money in R&D than AMD, but probably not as effective. AMD, please continue.
Posted by philehidiot - Mon 09 Dec 2019 22:55
Whilst it's fun to rag on Intel, I remember the P4 days. It was a dog of a chip. My main system was built with AMD's Athlon 64 but I also required a performance laptop. The performance laptops of the day used desktop processors in large Clevo chassis with insane cooling systems and the only option was a P4, despite the obvious superiority in performance and heat of the Athlon.

All the PCs at work were expensive P4s, paying hundreds over the odds for inferior systems. My laptop gradually cooked itself and is currently awaiting ‘Hard Informatics Total Transformation Into Negligible Grains". Or HITTING. With my hammer.

Intel will use dirty tactics and lies (AKA marketing) to get through this and will probably still make a profit.

Google search whether Intel or AMD make the best processors. The average normie will do just this, thinking it’s indepth research and the results do not favour AMD. How do most people buy a car? They look at brand and reviews. Few people will look at engine timings or power and torque curves or the number of pots in the brakes…. it's the same thing and the mainstream PC press are bought.

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