TSMC Begins Pilot Production of 3nm Chips

[prime007]

If you were wondering why TSMC's stock price jumped up initially this morning in Taiwan (but down in the US stock market because of the Apple news)...I believe I have your answer

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/tsmc-begins-pilot-production-of-3nm-chips

 

[Daniel Nenni]

I have heard N3 in second half 2022, Q4 2022, and now early 2023. Hopefully there will be a big turnout at the conferences in the next two weeks (DAC, RISC-V, Semicon West, and IEDM) so we find out more from the people who actually know.

 

[count]

Early 2023 has been the consistent guidance for a while now.

 

[Daniel Nenni]

Early 2023 has been the consistent guidance for a while now.

There are two versions of N3, one for SoC (Apple) and one for HPC (Intel/AMD). I don't think you can lump those together.

 

[lilo777]

What's "pilot production" in TSMC terminology? If it's about the test chips, this may not tell us much about the state of the process development.

 

[count]

What's "pilot production" in TSMC terminology? If it's about the test chips, this may not tell us much about the state of the process development.

I'm assuming by pilot production they mean risk production.

 

[SailorBob]

There are two versions of N3, one for SoC (Apple) and one for HPC (Intel/AMD). I don't think you can lump those together.

How long does the HPC version generally lag the SoC version, six months, twelve months?

 

[Daniel Nenni]

How long does the HPC version generally lag the SoC version, six months, twelve months?

It used to lag 6-12 months but now with Intel, AMD and Nvidia working closely with TSMC on N3 they were supposed to be parallel. From what I heard the HPC has been delayed and will be called N3E so we are back to the 6-12 month delay but that was not the original plan.