TSMC To Kick Off 5nm Mass Production Mid-2020; 3nm To Start In 2022
by John LawEarlier this year, TSMC announced that it had completed the fabrication process of its upcoming 5nm die lithography. Now, the Taiwan-based foundry recently announced that it is ready to go into mass production with its new process sometime in the middle of next year.
As per our earlier report, TSMC’s new 5nm process will be aimed at SoC designs, the emerging 5G connectivity and adoption, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing applications. Statistically speaking, the new process is expected to deliver 1.8 times the logic density of the currently existing ARM Cortex-A72 processor.
Despite it not being commercially available just yet, TSMC already has a client lining up for its 5nm process nodes. At the start of 2018, Apple announced that it had helped the foundry construct its 5nm fabrication plant. Meaning that the Cupertino giant will have first dibs on the TSMC’s first batch of chips once they become available in 2020.
On another note, TSMC also mentioned that it is also on track with its development and production of its 3nm process node in the year 2022. It’s a bit of good news, but also unsurprising when you consider that the foundry is already preparing to break ground for a new facility for said process.
(Source: Techspot)