TSMC starting 7nm+ chipset production
TSMC has officially announced that they will be mass producing second-generation 7nm+ chipsets. This is the first time the Taiwanese company is implementing EUV lithography, making a step towards being the main competitor of Intel and Samsung.
According to reports from China, the company will continue supplying Huawei. The new process will be implemented in the upcoming Kirin 985 chipset in the Mate 30. It will also be part of the Apple A13 SoC, expected to appear in the 2019 iPhones.
TSMC has already made it clear that it will keep supplying Huawei with chipsets, despite the conflicts between the United States and China. Since it is a Taiwanese company and not Mainland China, it has separate trade agreements with both economic superpowers and is not affected by any of the ongoing issues.
In the memo, TSMC has also announced its future plans lying ahead. It is currently beginning trial production of 5 nm process wafers with fully applied EUV technology. They are expected to enter mass production in Q1 2020, so its chipsets can hit the market by June 2020.
A new plant in the Southern Science and Technology Park in Taiwan is currently being relocated and getting new installations for the manufacturing process. The old R&D plant will start preparing for 3nm processes.
In addition to the current plans, there is also a transitional 6nm process in the works. This will be an upgrade of its already shipped 7nm+ process devices, similar to what Qualcomm did with the 11nm Snapdragon 675, a platform that is a tad faster than the 12 nm Snapdragon 670.