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TSMC has produced >1 quintillion 7nm transistors since April 2018

by Mark Tyson on 21 August 2020, 10:11

Tags: TSMC

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TSMC is in celebratory mood as it has recently passed a gargantuan milestone. According to a blog post published by the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, it manufactured its billionth 7nm chip this July, so must be well past that number by now. TSMC started 7nm volume production in April 2018.

Just in case a billion was rather underwhelming in your perception, TSMC puts its feat into exa-perspective by revealing that to create those chips it fabricated over one quintillion 7nm transistors. If you are looking for a real-world scale illustration, it goes on to claim that it has output "enough silicon to cover more than 13 Manhattan city blocks," to reach this major milestone.

TSMC seems to be rather proud of its 7nm success. In a section of the blog posted headed 'practice makes perfect' it mentions how it has upped the quality and yield faster than ever before, even though 7nm marked the introduction of the long-anticipated extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Thanks to stringent quality control, supported by AI and ML technologies on the production lines, TSMC achieved automotive-grade quality for 7nm in 2019.

The chip foundry's efforts and good progress in 7nm means that its N6 process, in volume production today, is lined up for partners already. N6 is touted to deliver nearly 20% logic density improvement, making it more cost-effective, and its design rules are completely compatible with its N7 predecessor. Moreover, TSMC claims it will cement its lead by beginning 5nm volume production this year.

As a reminder, Intel recently told investors that its 7nm CPU products will be delayed a further six months - meaning products featuring the process won't be available until late 2022 or early 2023. In the meantime Intel reckons its 10nm SuperFin technology delivers processor enhancements comparable to a full node transition.



HEXUS Forums :: 7 Comments

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if TSMC was a USA company it would be worth $4 trillion surpassing Apple by twice.
Give me a call when they hit a googleplex :mrgreen:
Intel reckons its 10nm SuperFin technology delivers processor enhancements comparable to a full node transition.

Is that the same way they reckon benchmarks don't matter anymore and 4 cores is good enough etc? I reckon lots of things, doesn't make them true. Be interesting to see the tests when they finally get released. In 2022 or however long it takes.
ik9000
Is that the same way they reckon benchmarks don't matter anymore and 4 cores is good enough etc? I reckon lots of things, doesn't make them true. Be interesting to see the tests when they finally get released. In 2022 or however long it takes.

Intels reckoning is based on the performance and capability of 10nm as the starting point. So they're not wrong because 10nm was utter garbage, 10nm+ was a mediocre waste of time and 10nm++ (SF) is where iy was expected to be years ago
lumireleon
if TSMC was a USA company it would be worth $4 trillion surpassing Apple by twice.

So true, it could even be more, as crazy as it sounds.