TSMC: 5 nm on Track for Q2 2020 HVM, Ramping Faster than 7 nm

[Raevenlord]

TSMC vice chairman and CEO C.C. Wei announced the company's plans for 5 nm are on track, which means High Volume manufacturing (HVM) on the node is expected to be achieved by 2Q 2020. The company has increased expenditures in ramping up its various nodes from an initially projected $10 billion to something along the lines of $14 billion - 15 billion; the company is really banking on quick uptake and design wins on its most modern process technologies - and the increased demand that follows.

TSMC's 5 nm process (N5) will use extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) in many more layers than its N7+ and N6 processes, with up to 14 layers being etched in the N5 silicon compared to five and six, respectively, for its "older" N7+ and N6 processes. As the company increases capital expenditure in acquiring EUVL-capable equipment that sets up its production nodes for the market they foresee will just gobble up the chips in 2020, the company is optimistic they can achieve growth in the 5-10% number.



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[Space Lynx]

so a ryzen 5700x in summer 2021 will be a 5nm EUV chip most likely? impressive...

 

[thesmokingman]

They are on a serious roll.

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

Big Ooof for intel

 

[dicktracy]

Forget about boring CPUs. Nvidia will be a beast with this!

 

[john_]

Funny how the evolution of the X86 platform, is in the hands of two companies and none of them is called "intel".

 

[chaosmassive]

this guy TSMC has no chill man

 

[notb]

Funny how the evolution of the X86 platform, is in the hands of two companies and none of them is called "intel".

Well, since Intel is not the only company in the x86 business, it would be nice if someone else carried the torch once in 40 years.

BTW: TSMC has really no role in this. AMD fans started to worship this company (like GF in the past), but they're not really involved in the designing process. They just make the chips.
And they're not connected by capital. AMD has no priority - they just get the wafers they paid for (the situation with GF was different).
People assume AMD will have access to every new node TSMC offers, which just isn't true. We know they've contracted 5nm launching in 2020 (we don't know how much). And AFAIK that's it.
We also know Nvidia is planning a big growth and Intel is like to oursource Xe manufacturing (maybe CPUs as well).

 

[john_]

Well, since Intel is not the only company in the x86 business, it would be nice if someone else carried the torch once in 40 years.

BTW: TSMC has really no role in this. AMD fans started to worship this company (like GF in the past), but they're not really involved in the designing process. They just make the chips.
And they're not connected by capital. AMD has no priority - they just get the wafers they paid for (the situation with GF was different).
People assume AMD will have access to every new node TSMC offers, which just isn't true. We know they've contracted 5nm launching in 2020 (we don't know how much). And AFAIK that's it.
We also know Nvidia is planning a big growth and Intel is like to oursource Xe manufacturing (maybe CPUs as well).

AMD had done it before, when coming out with 64bit in a form that was beneficial to the consumer. If I remember correctly, Itanium was ultra expensive and not so (any?) compatible with 32bit software.
It done it again when introducing processors with integrated memory controller, making all motherboards performing the same. No "-20% performance if you buy this board with this chipset" troubles in the concumer's head.

TSMC got a huge role from the time it started making X86 processors. Consider the (slim) possibility Intel having problems at 7nm also. Or consider the possibility Intel having problems investing huge amounts of money to move to 5nm and 3nm. X86 could start losing it's performance advantage against ARM.

And while you make it look simple, ask Intel if it is so easy to "Just make the chips". Not to mention that Intel fans where worshiping Intel's manufacturing capabilities in the past. Not so much today.

TSMC will give wafers to AMD, except if it wants Samsung becoming again a viable opponent. A customer is not just a customer. It's a huge amount of money. A huge amount of money that either will end up in your pocket and help you invest in the next node, or in your main competitor's pocket and help him invest in his next node. It's like when the two top teams of a championship table play against each other. The win doesn't give just 3 points (European football the example), but 6 points. The 3 points that the winner gets, the three points that the loser losses. And with AMD TSMC proves that it can manufacture high wattage, high performing x86 CPUs. Someone looking at the big picture could consider this. What if Intel stops investing in leading edge manufacturing? Or what if they try to find an alternative option to manufacture part of their processors? TSMC could use it's expertise with AMD to get Intel as a customer. Why close that door? AMD will always get the wafers it wants from TSMC. Because AMD's processors are proofs that TSMC's manufacturing is not only for low wattage ARM chips or, high wattage, but low frequency, GPUs.

Nvidia will turn to Samsung, so Nvidia fanboys will start worshiping Samsung. Intel will go TSMC for it's GPUs, because TSMC has proved that it can build GPUs and Intel's capacity AND 10nm manufacturing problems. Then TSMC will be worshiped from Intel fanboys also.


PS "Worshiped". Don't really like this word in the test.

 

[kapone32]

The whole thing is just a morase of potential partnerships, betrayals and innovations. While AMD is not nearly as big as Intel or Nvidia in either space they enjoy being the only CPU and GPU manufacturer. There is also the fact that AMD sells more CPUs today than they did in 2017 and I am sure that is partly due to the delay in the 3950X from the exceeding of supply by demand of AMD's 7nm node. We can wax poetic as much as we want about who is better but the facts are there and these announcements are proof to me that due (obviously not wholly) to AMD's rise that their roadmap will be synchronous to TSMCs node shrinks.