TSMC has invested heavily on machinery and the infrastructure to be able to secure orders for lucrative clients such as Apple and it looks like that perseverance has paid off. The manufacturer certainly looks to be on track to produce 5nm A-Series chips for Apple’s 2020 iPhone lineup. According to the latest report, TSMC has managed to achieve a major milestone, one that will pave the way to allowing Apple to create more powerful and energy efficient chipsets for mobile devices and tablets.
TSMC’S 5nm Design Infrastructure Is Reportedly Complete, Giving Companies Such as Apple a Major Advantage in the Smartphone Race
TSMC has announced delivery of the complete version of its 5nm design infrastructure within the Open Innovation Platform. According to the Taiwanese manufacturer via DigiTimes, EDA and IP vendors partnered with the firm to develop and validate the complete design infrastructure. This also included technology files, process design kits (PDKs), tools, flows, and IP. The 5nm lithography is expected to feature logic density that is 1.8 times greater than current generation chips, leading to both gains in performance and power efficiency. Cliff Hou, VP of R&D and technology development at TSMC has said the following regarding the 5nm process.
“TSMC's 5-nanometer technology offers our customers the industry's most advanced logic process to address the exponentially growing demand for computing power driven by AI and 5G. 5-nanometer technology requires deeper design-technology co-optimization. Therefore, we collaborate seamlessly with our ecosystem partners to ensure we deliver silicon-validated IP blocks and EDA tools ready for customer use. As always, we are committed to helping customers achieve first-time silicon success and faster time-to-market."
As most of you know, TSMC has long been Apple’s sole supplier of A-series chips, and it has left Samsung behind. However, to keep its partnership alive and kindling with the technology giant, TSMC will need to continue injecting a mammoth number of resources in smaller manufacturing process, such as 3nm. It just so happens that TSMC is reportedly aiming for the 3nm chip production in 2022.
In addition to Apple, Huawei and Qualcomm are also some of TSMC’s clients, while MediaTek will be relying on its slightly cheaper offerings to continue securing the lower priced segments of the smartphone market. It will be interesting to see how Apple’s A14 made on the 5nm EUV process fares in terms of performance and efficiency once they start powering next-year iPhones.
Let us hope the wait was certainly worth it.
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- Apple’s 2020 iPhone Lineup Once More Rumored to Be an ‘All OLED’ Affair, but This Time, These Models Might Ditch the Notch
- Apple’s 2020 iPhone Lineup Will Use the Company’s A14 Silicon Reportedly Made on TSMC’S 5nm EUV Technology
- Apple Rumored to Use in-Hole Display Technology for Its 2020 iPhone Lineup, According to Tipster
News Source: DigiTimes
