TSMC Preps 10nm, Tunes 16nm

10nm needs new flow, Xilinx will skip it

Rick Merritt, EETimes
9/17/2015 05:00 PM ED

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- TSMC will start early production on a 10nm process this year and 7nm in 2017, executives said in a road map update here. In between, the foundry giant will release a cost-reduced version of its 16nm process next year and a broad portfolio of specialty processes for the Internet of Things, automotive and sensors.

The road map suggests TSMC could leapfrog Intel to producing 10nm chips, although naming conventions for nodes these days hide the underlying details of the processes. What's more clear is TSMC has gotten off to a slow start with its 16nm FinFET process with close partners such as Xilinx saying they have taped out but not yet shipped their first chip in the process. Xilinx also plans to skip TSMC’s 10mn process in favor of its 7nm node, a significant choice given Xilinx typically acts as a logic driver for new TSMC nodes.

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