Taiwanese chip maker TSMC is one of the largest chip makers in the world. According to the latest report, the company has started mass production of 6nm chips since yesterday. Intel is showing interest in this process technology.
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A few months ago, at a reporting conference for the first quarter, TSMC CEO Wei Zhejia announced that the 6nm process is in trial production, calling it a transitional stage between 7nm and 5nm process technology. According to the design standards and technological equipment, it is almost completely compatible with the 7nm process technology, and the addition of one layer with EUV lithography allows an 18% increase in the density of transistors. As conceived by TSMC, this very 6nm technical process will become the choice of those who are not ready to shell out for 5nm technology and get involved with the accompanying technical difficulties.
However, TSMC should not suffer from a shortage of customers for 6nm chips. It is assumed that products for Intel will be manufactured according to TSMC 6nm process technology. It plans to attract an external contractor for the production of gaming graphics accelerators, for part of the Ponte Vecchio computing chiplets and for the interface unit. What exactly will be 6nm, Intel does not specify, but it was previously assumed that the Ponte Vecchio will be Intel’s first 7nm product. At the end of last month, it was reported that TSMC received an order from Intel for the production of 180 thousand 6-nm wafers until 2021.
Recall that TSMC’s 5nm process technology is already in mass production. The first 5nm chip is expected to be Apple’s A14 Bionic. It will debut the iPhone 12 series smartphones, which will be presented this fall. Also, according to these advanced standards, the flagship Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 1020 chip was supposed to be produced, but due to US sanctions, its fate is unknown.
Nevertheless, everything is not as smooth at TSMC as it might seem at first glance. It is reported that the Chinese chip makers are actively poaching the best TSMC engineers. Since last year, two Chinese companies, QXIC and HSMC, have hired more than one hundred top TSMC employees to improve their competitiveness in the chip manufacturing industry.
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