AMD Ryzen 4000 series CPU may use TSMC's 5nm+ process -

There have been reports that the upcoming AMD Ryzen 4000 series CPU will be built using TSMC’s 7nm process. TSMC’s 5nm process capacity is tight, and it has been booked by major customers such as Huawei and Apple. However, we know that Huawei’s order with TSMC is hanging on a balance. Nevertheless, recent reports claim that the AMD Ryzen 4000 series will now use TSMC’s 5nm+ process.

The 5nm+ from TSMC has not been officially confirmed and we can not tell what exactly this process offer. In fact, TSMC’s second-generation 5nm process, that is, the 5nm+ process has not yet been mass-produced. However, there are reports that TSMC is promoting mass production in the four seasons this year. This means that AMD can book the capacity of TSMC’s process.

AMD CEO Su Zifeng also talked about the process technology of their Ryzen 4000 series CPU in a meeting on Thursday. She did not directly deny the possibility of using the 5nm+ process, and she also said that the AMD CPU roadmap remains the same. Her words 

“I think 5nm is an important node and one that we will use quite heavily in our roadmap. I’m not ready to talk about timing yet, but I will say that Zen 4 is deep in design. We are very collaborative with TSMC. The way to think about it is, the process nodes usually start with mobile, and mobile is usually a simpler process from the standpoint of the performance it is trying to get…5nm will be important for Zen 4, as well as our GPU roadmap, will be using 5nm. However, we’ll talk about timing as we get a little bit closer.”

Of course, there are reports that TSMC will no longer take orders from Huawei due to the U.S. new law. Thus, there is a possibility that TSMC will want to fill the 5nm slots. However, TSMC’s deal with Huawei is just speculations for now. There are also reports that both companies have the next three months to conclude all business transactions.