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posted by martyb on Monday June 03 2019, @06:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the and-then-there-were-two dept.

At the end of March, two semiconductor manufacturing titans climbed another rung on the ladder of Moore's Law.

Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) announced 5nm manufacturing of at-risk-production while Samsung announced its own 5nm manufacturing process was ready for sampling.

TSMC says its 5-nm process offers a 15 percent speed gain or a 30 percent improvement in power efficiency. Samsung is promising a 10 percent performance improvement or a 20 percent efficiency improvement

Also, "both Samsung and TSMC are offering what they're calling a 6-nm process" as a kind of stepping stone for customers with earlier availability (H2 2019) vs 5nm production.

Unfortunately, but perhaps not unexpectedly, the playing field has narrowed significantly with the progression to 5nm foundry production

GlobalFoundries gave up at 14 nm and Intel, which is years late with its rollout of an equivalent to competitors' 7 nm, is thought to be pulling back on its foundry services, according to analysts.

Samsung and TSMC remain because they can afford the investment and expect a reasonable return. Samsung was the largest chipmaker by revenue in 2018, but its foundry business ranks fourth, with TSMC in the lead. TSMC's capital expenditure was $10 billion in 2018. Samsung expects to nearly match that on a per-year basis until 2030.

Can the industry function with only two companies capable of the most advanced manufacturing processes? "It's not a question of can it work?" says [G. Dan Hutcheson, at VLSI Research]. "It has to work."

According to Len Jelinek, a semiconductor-manufacturing analyst at IHS Markit. "As long as we have at least two viable solutions, then the industry will be comfortable"

There may only be two left, but neither company is sitting still:

Previous Coverage
TSMC's "5nm" (CLN5FF) Process On-Track for High-Volume Manufacturing in 2020
TSMC Holds Groundbreaking Ceremony for "5nm" Fab, Production to Begin in 2020
Samsung Plans to Make "5nm" Chips Starting in 2019-2020
TSMC Details Scaling/Performance Gains Expected From "5nm CLN5" Process
TSMC Tapes Out Second-Generation "7nm" Chip Using EUV, Will Begin Risk Production of "5nm" in April


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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 03 2019, @10:42AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 03 2019, @10:42AM (#850789)

    What do you think about apples new $7999.99 wieghtless and completely transparent MacBook?

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Monday June 03 2019, @10:59AM (2 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday June 03 2019, @10:59AM (#850797) Journal

    It uses a 0nm processor, right?

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 03 2019, @12:45PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 03 2019, @12:45PM (#850834)

      Yep, 0 nm technology.

      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday June 03 2019, @05:36PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Monday June 03 2019, @05:36PM (#850919)

        Incidentally, 0nm is also the travel on the keyboard they'll put on it.
        "3D haptic feedback", they'll call it. With changeable keyboard shapes.

        Yet it will still fail because of microscopic dust, and it will be your fault.