[Digitimes] Innovation to keep Moore's Law alive, says TSMC co-CEO

[Arachnotronic]

TSMC will continue to innovate to keep Moore's Law alive, and maintaining the company's technology leadership is always a fundamental strategy, said TSMC co-CEO Mark Liu at a recent event in Hsinchu.

TSMC has been mass producing 16nm chips, and is looking to enter volume production of 10nm chips by the end of 2016. Moving forward, the foundry will start risk production of 7nm chips in early 2017, and has been engaged in the development of 5nm process technology, said Liu.

While TSMC's R&D for 5nm process continues, a team of the foundry's 300-400 engineers has already been involved in R&D for 3nm process, Liu indicated.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20160929PD208.html

 

[Azuma Hazuki]

This is a puff piece...almost entirely content-free. There's no repercussions for them if they slip off their target I'm guessing.

 

[deasd]

I heard a rumor that Apple A10X would be based on TSMC 10nm, right?

Maybe one day I would have something like Ipad pro to replace my cumbersome PC.

 

[witeken]

Remember how 20nm production supposedly started in January 14? Their was a 20nm modem before it, but first real product was A7 in September.

TSMC says what they wanna say. For them too, Moore's Law is 2.5-3yrs per node.

20nm BEOL end 2014, 14nm BEOL will be start of 2017 earliest, so 2.5 years.

 

[Arachnotronic]

I heard a rumor that Apple A10X would be based on TSMC 10nm, right?

Maybe one day I would have something like Ipad pro to replace my cumbersome PC.

Yeah, lots of sources point to a 10nm A10X.

 

[Arachnotronic]

This is a puff piece...almost entirely content-free. There's no repercussions for them if they slip off their target I'm guessing.

Bottom line is they need to deliver in time for Apple since the iPad refresh is coming in the spring.

When you are an Apple supplier it's usually not a good idea to fail to deliver.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Remember how 20nm production supposedly started in January 14? Their was a 20nm modem before it, but first real product was A7 in September.

TSMC says what they wanna say. For them too, Moore's Law is 2.5-3yrs per node.

20nm BEOL end 2014, 14nm BEOL will be start of 2017 earliest, so 2.5 years.

You do realize that there is a lag between production start and availability in consumer devices, right?

Typical cycle time in the fab is around 3-4 months and a company needs to stock pile a bunch of chips in order to support a device launch.

If Apple is going to launch the next iPad in March, the A10X production wafers need to be going into the oven pretty much by December of this year, preferably sooner.

For iPhone the lead time is even longer given the sheer volume of devices that Apple has to have ready on launch day (probably 10 million+ devices make it into the hands of consumers on launch day).

 

[witeken]

You do realize that there is a lag between production start and availability in consumer devices, right?

Typical cycle time in the fab is around 3-4 months and a company needs to stock pile a bunch of chips in order to support a device launch.

If Apple is going to launch the next iPad in March, the A10X production wafers need to be going into the oven pretty much by December of this year, preferably sooner.

For iPhone the lead time is even longer given the sheer volume of devices that Apple has to have ready on launch day (probably 10 million+ devices make it into the hands of consumers on launch day).

But Samsung is making the A10X, so who cares about TSMC anyway?

And 10M iPad pros on launch ?

 

[Arachnotronic]

But Samsung is making the A10X, so who cares about TSMC anyway?

And 10M iPad pros on launch ?

Samsung isn't making the A10X, TSMC is.

And I didn't say 10 million iPad Pros.

 

[witeken]

And I didn't say 10 million iPad Pros.

Thank you for making your reply to my misreading more friendly.

 

[ninaholic37]

First link also says this:

TSMC also expects to team with academics to develop 2nm process technology, according to Liu.

Also here:
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/tsmc-moores-law-trail-2nm-2016-09/

Liu added that he expects TSMC to team up with academia to develop 2nm process technology.

Bring on the 2nm!

 

[witeken]

First link also says this:


Also here:
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/tsmc-moores-law-trail-2nm-2016-09/


Bring on the 2nm!

That awkard moment in a few generation when the silicon process will have a number smaller than the size of a silicon atom.