TSMC to Tape Out 100 7 nm Chip Designs by 2019

[Raevenlord]

TSMC has become the de facto leader when it comes to manufacturing technology. The company is on the forefront of new process technologies, and provides solutions for some of the biggest players in the industry, like Apple, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and AMD, just to name a few. This process leadership means that TSMC is being courted by numerous fabless silicon designers so as to produce their silicon chips with the latest process technologies - part of the reason why TSMC has seen increasing revenues and profits forecasts.

By the end of 2018, TSMC will have taped out 50 7 nm designs, and plans to double that number in 2019. And these design wins don't stand solely on the shoulders of TSMC's first 7 nm technology (which should account for 20% of the company's revenue by 2019); the company will also tape-out chips built upon their 7 nm + EUV process, which will begin production in 2019.



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[Durvelle27]

Great news for AMD

 

[Deleted member 158293]

Without competition the high demand will drive prices up. Really not good news for consumers.

 

[R0H1T]

Without competition the high demand will drive prices up. Really not good news for consumers.

What

The x86 space is more competitive than it has ever been in the last decade & a half. If anything, with Via possibly looking to make a comeback, the competition is only gonna heat up.

 

[windwhirl]

What

The x86 space is more competitive than it has ever been in the last decade & a half. If anything, with Via possibly looking to make a comeback, the competition is only gonna heat up.

I think yakk means foundries. Since GloFo doesn't have their own 7 nm process ready, if I remember correctly, TSMC would be free to increase their price, which would lead to a higher price for us consumers.

 

[R0H1T]

I think yakk means foundries. Since GloFo doesn't have their own 7 nm process ready, if I remember correctly, TSMC would be free to increase their price, which would lead to a higher price for us consumers.

That can't be helped honestly, though there is Sammy as an alternative supplier however I'm not sure if they can make high performance x86 chips atm.

 

[Frick]

I think yakk means foundries. Since GloFo doesn't have their own 7 nm process ready, if I remember correctly, TSMC would be free to increase their price, which would lead to a higher price for us consumers.

It's worse than that, they pulled out of that race entirely, which seems short sighted.

“The lion’s share of our customers…have no plans for” 7nm chips. Industry-wide demand for the 14/16 node was half the volume of 28nm, and 7nm demand may be half the level of the 14/16nm node, Caulfield said.

“When we look out to 2022, two-thirds of the foundry market will be in nodes at 12nm and above, so it’s not like we are conceding a big part of this market,” he added.

OTOH he has a bit of a point; if most of the silicone industry has zero plans for 7nm they are indeed not giving up entirely. The second paragraph is strange though: if no one builds foundries on <12nm obviously the foundries will not make them.

 

[Vayra86]

It's worse than that, they pulled out of that race entirely, which seems short sighted.



OTOH he has a bit of a point; if most of the silicone industry has zero plans for 7nm they are indeed not giving up entirely. The second paragraph is strange though: if no one builds foundries on <12nm obviously the foundries will not make them.

Don't be crazy, if you're not moving to a smaller node when the competitor has it at full steam, its the end of the road eventually, or you will need to readjust and cater to different markets. Nobody is going to accept second rate hardware and we know what the current nodes are capable of. No progress = death. Even if simply because in 2022, my Coffee Lake CPU will still be working just fine. There is zero reason to sidegrade to something with the same performance.

 

[Frick]

Don't be crazy, if you're not moving to a smaller node when the competitor has it at full steam, its the end of the road eventually, or you will need to readjust and cater to different markets. Nobody is going to accept second rate hardware and we know what the current nodes are capable of. No progress = death. Even if simply because in 2022, my Coffee Lake CPU will still be working just fine. There is zero reason to sidegrade to something with the same performance.

I'm not crazy (not clinicically anyway), and neither are GloFo. The world of silicone is more than CPUs, SoCs and GPUs. And does anyone had solid pland beyond 7 or 5nm? I mean realistically? The end of silicone is definitely upon is, and what will happen beyond thst? We keep saying they'll vome up with something, but what? Intel, damn Intel for petes sake, can't figure out <14nm, and they used to be the masters of this race. What beyond thst? GloFo might have given up on reduction, but I doubt they've given up on refinement of the current process. The great wall is approaching, and GloFo is just doubling down on what they know they can do. They say the majority of their customers have no plans whatsoever for anything below their current node. Sure improved tech makes way for new applications of that tech, but they probably couldn't make the figures to make sense.

I mean that was just my initial reaction to it, but the more I think about it the more sense it makes to me.