Friday, April 22nd 2016

TSMC to Begin 7 nm Trial Production in 2017

Taiwan's premier semiconductor foundry TSMC could begin 7 nanometer (nm) trial production in as early as the first half of 2017. Co-CEO Mark Liu, speaking at the company's investor-meet held earlier this month, stated that TSMC is currently engaging with over 20 companies on 7 nm development, with over 15 tape-outs within 2017, leading up to volume-production by early-2018. In the run-up to 7 nm, the company is also developing a 10 nm node for lower-powered devices (eg: mobile baseband). The company has already begun tape-outs of 10 nm chips in Q1-2016. TSMC is currently handling volume-production of 16 nm FinFET Plus chips.
Source: DeliddedTech
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8 Comments on TSMC to Begin 7 nm Trial Production in 2017

#1
FordGT90Concept
"I go fast!1!11!1!"
TSMC pass up Intel when Intel is clearly struggling? They're being way too optimistic.
Posted on Reply
#2
dj-electric
Intel is... not struggling. its just a bit lazy. its 10nm facility is at full speed these days. 7nm and 5nm are on their way.
Posted on Reply
#3
Frick
Fishfaced Nincompoop
Dj-ElectriCIntel is... not struggling. its just a bit lazy. its 10nm facility is at full speed these days. 7nm and 5nm are on their way.
As I understand it going below what we're at now has proven much more difficult than expected.

EDIT: IBM made a 7nm chip last year, but I have no idea if it's actually marketable yet.

EDIT again: It's not.

Also,

arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/07/ibm-unveils-industrys-first-7nm-chip-moving-beyond-silicon/

EDIT Redux: And apparently that IBM chip was not even a logical, functioning chip.
Posted on Reply
#4
trog100
the last intel die shrink (skylake) never seemed to produce that much.. maybe the next one wont ether..

the law of diminishing returns always seem to kicks in somewhere along the line.. :)

trog
Posted on Reply
#5
happita
trog100the last intel die shrink (skylake) never seemed to produce that much.. maybe the next one wont ether..

the law of diminishing returns always seem to kicks in somewhere along the line.. :)

trog
In terms of CPU performance, no it didn't, but they've made some good headway with their integrated GPU in recent years.

I fear that future die shrinks will only be more of the same.
Posted on Reply
#6
yogurt_21
FrickAs I understand it going below what we're at now has proven much more difficult than expected.

EDIT: IBM made a 7nm chip last year, but I have no idea if it's actually marketable yet.

EDIT again: It's not.

Also,

arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/07/ibm-unveils-industrys-first-7nm-chip-moving-beyond-silicon/

EDIT Redux: And apparently that IBM chip was not even a logical, functioning chip.
article from 2015 says real chips are 2 years away... uses it as evidence against tmsc being able to hit volume production by 2018...

primary school wasn't kind to you.
Posted on Reply
#7
Frick
Fishfaced Nincompoop
yogurt_21article from 2015 says real chips are 2 years away... uses it as evidence against tmsc being able to hit volume production by 2018...

primary school wasn't kind to you.
It wasn't.

The point was to illustrate that they are not being lazy, that it's really rather difficult to make progress.
Posted on Reply
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