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News TSMC gets green light for China fab plans

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 3 Feb 2016.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Gareth Halfacree, 3 Feb 2016
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  2. zimano

    zimano What's a Dremel?

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    Assuming that TSMC really are ahead of Intel process node development wise, what does this really mean? Intel will lose the advantage of getting more chips per wafer than anyone else but is there more to it than this? For as long as I can remember Intel have had this advantage.
     
    zimano, 3 Feb 2016
    #2
  3. Jimbob

    Jimbob Minimodder

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    If they plan to move to 7nm by 2018 then what is the point in opening a new factory producing 16nm in 2018?
     
    Jimbob, 3 Feb 2016
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  4. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Because not everyone wants a cutting-edge process. Look at some of the biggest chips out there: GPUs are at 28nm, FPGAs are at 28nm, 32-bit ARM chips (the majority of 'em, in other words) are at 28nm, Atmel's *incredibly* popular range of ATmega microcontrollers are built on a 350nm process...

    There's no way anybody's bulk output will be 7nm by 2018.
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 3 Feb 2016
    #4
  5. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    As a TWese company they cannot legally have a leading edge node manufactured in China. By 2018 they will be on 10-7nm, so 16 will not be leading. It will make them more cost competitive on 16nm.
     
    Guest-16, 4 Feb 2016
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  6. Elton

    Elton Officially a Whisky Nerd

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    Costs. It costs quite a lot more to develop on a node that is smaller, you need better optics, and above all you need to know how the yields are. Using an older node especially now is a good way to retain good yields and potentially cut down on expensive lithography and optics required with smaller nodes.

    Not to mention that early smaller nodes will undoubtedly have yield issues so stop gap nodes (like 16nm) are pretty great when you need to serve more than just the big CPU/GPU guys.
     
    Elton, 4 Feb 2016
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