This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

TSMC HQ

Samsung may accept scored a one-time coup over TSMC for Apple's business organization at 14nm, but that increasingly appears to have been a lucky strike. TSMC has been Apple tree'due south sole supplier since the A10 in 2022, including this twelvemonth's A12 Bionic with the Apple iPhone XS, XS Max, and Xr. Combined with contempo news on TSMC's 7nm EUV and 5nm take a chance production, all the same, the implication is that we won't run across much in the way of a node comeback for Apple to work with in 2022.

TSMC has just announced that information technology's taped out its first 7nm EUV design, with EUV existence used for those parts of the fleck that don't require a pellicle. TSMC also stated information technology would brainstorm take chances production on 5nm in Q2 2022, just run a risk production typically takes a year to ramp into the kind of volumes that Apple would require for an iPhone launch — and the EUV pellicle solution required for 5nm isn't set up yet, as far as anyone knows. That means the gains for a 2nd-generation 7nm could exist small indeed, given that EUV isn't actually expected to evangelize any in and of itself.

It'due south expected that we'll first see a new A12X before the A13 debuts, with the A12X dropping into updated versions of devices like Apple tree'southward iPad Pro. TSMC is looking into using a more advanced form of packaging to improve 7nm performance and capabilities, with its integrated fan-out (InFo) technology making the leap to 7nm (information technology'southward previously been deployed on older nodes). Using fan-out technology allows for heterogeneous components to be packed more densely, which can reduce power consumption and improve functioning past packing $.25 more closely together.

TSMC-3

Nosotros talk most the foundry business organisation every bit being a multi-mode race, merely at this point, it's actually down to two companies — TSMC and Intel. Samsung is said to have only Qualcomm and its own internal foundry work as a customer at 7nm. GlobalFoundries is out of the race. The number of customers who can afford to brand transitions to new nodes gets smaller every fourth dimension a new node debuts, and TSMC commands 56 percent of the merchant-foundry market. That's a staggering marketplace share for a single visitor in a field ostensibly crowded with competitors. The 2022 foundry revenue rankings show just how lopsided the market is:

IMG_0956

Foundry revenue, 2022

As things stand up today, it'southward increasingly shaping up like a 2-way fight betwixt TSMC and Intel at the leading edge, even as the question of how much existence on the leading border matters is increasingly uncertain. 2d-generation 7nm EUV isn't expected to drive major operation improvements or expanse reduction, equally that won't happen until 5nm. Expect a lot of discussion about how much it matters for AMD or Nvidia or other major companies to exist sitting on TSMC's 7nm next yr while Intel is deploying its own 10nm, but assuming both process nodes work properly, the gaps may not be that large. Equally the benefits of each node shrink, the difference between existence stuck on the last one and using something at the cutting edge volition exist commensurately smaller.

At present Read: TSMC Announces First EUV 7nm Gamble Production, 5nm Tapeouts in Q2 2022, AMD Moves All 7nm CPU, GPU Product to TSMC, and Report: Intel Will Outsource Chipset Product to TSMC