Because they make uninformed, shoot from the hip comments. Typical for these type of arenas. It’s not like this is the forum from Silicon Catalysts. 😉
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TSMC's Arizona Plant Will Manufacture 4nm Chips Starting in 2024 at Apple's Request
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Because they make uninformed, shoot from the hip comments. Typical for these type of arenas. It’s not like this is the forum from Silicon Catalysts. 😉
As long as the next MacBook Pro also gets Bionics like my iPhone, then I am ok with 4nm.
The smallest actual measurements stopped at around 45nm, over a decade ago.
So many cries to move manufacturing to the US. Now that TSMC is moving some of its manufacturing to the US is political. Can't please the woke.
3nm will bragging rights. From what I hear the lithography tools are coming with a huge cost increase. not to mention the friggen size of the track and scanner. TSMC 2nd (limited space though), 3rd and 4th AZ fabs and intel Fab62 will be designed for sub 5nm. Current ASML and Nikons are multi level and consume a lot of fab and sub fab space.
isn't TSCM ready to do 3NM already? Its meant to ship to customers Q1 2023 which is why we debated here few months back if Apple will use that process (for M2 chips) or not.
To be honest I don't know why; when it comes to crazy controversy Biden is the most boring President we've ever had, and that's a great thing. He's not particularly all that left, or all that right, and seems to want to please everyone in some way.
And you'd think the right-leaning folks would be thrilled at more manufacturing in the US.
But I digress... these are weird times.
Gotta crawl before you walk.
They may or may not make the latest/greatest chips at this plant. What matters it the basic building blocks are there. The lithographic machines, ETC are all in place. I'm guessing the bin rate will be high in the beginning.
But this is no different than the ability to bend metal to make tanks, trucks, or rifles. Semiconductors are essential to the defense of North America and the NATO countries. Same as any other manufacturing capability.
They may or may not make the latest/greatest chips at this plant. What matters it the basic building blocks are there. The lithographic machines, ETC are all in place. I'm guessing the bin rate will be high in the beginning.
But this is no different than the ability to bend metal to make tanks, trucks, or rifles. Semiconductors are essential to the defense of North America and the NATO countries. Same as any other manufacturing capability.
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TSMC's $12 billion chip plant currently under construction in Arizona will begin producing 4-nanometer chips as soon as it opens in 2024 thanks to urging from Apple and other companies, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
![m1-4nm-feature2.jpg]()
The plant had originally been planned to start with production of 5-nanometer chips, but with Apple and other companies increasingly looking to source components from the United States, TSMC has upgraded its plans so the facility will be able to supply more cutting-edge chips.The new plans are scheduled to be announced in Phoenix next Tuesday with President Joe Biden, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and Apple CEO Tim Cook expected to be in attendance, along with AMD CEO Lisa Su and Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang.
In addition to the 4-nanometer production facility, TSMC will reportedly officially announce plans for a second phase involving an adjacent facility that will produce even more advanced 3-nanometer chips, a development that was revealed last week by TSMC founder Morris Chang.
Apple's latest chips are manufactured on a 5-nanometer process, and moving to more advanced processes should result in significant improvements in performance and power efficiency. Apple has been rumored to be using 4nm and 3nm processes for some of its upcoming M-series and A-series chips for use in Macs, iPads, iPhones, and other products.
Article Link: TSMC's Arizona Plant Will Manufacture 4nm Chips Starting in 2024 at Apple's Request
All the talk for last couple months was 3nm and now they are patting themselves on the back because they will 4nm in 2024.
As someone pointed out all this 2, 3, 4, and 5 NM stuff is just Marketing slime to have a term simple enough to generate news for the masses.
It's really up to the makers of the scanners what technology will be available. to whom and when.
It really looks like the A16 will be used for the next SE and 15 which I guess with the addition of the dynamic island will be much more popular among those wanting to save but not feel like they’re being left out/behind (looking at you iPhone 14). For a time I was wondering if maybe the A16 was just a stopgap processor because Apple had originally expected the 3NM A17 to be ready for the both the 14 and 14 Pro. This could still be confirmed in a way if both the 15 and 15 Pro get the 3NM A17 next year.
Intel already did. Their previous 7nm node is now called ”Intel 4”. They still can’t make it production worthy though….
This is a great move and will reduce the threat China poses to the chip market.
According to TSMC's own press release (which I've screenshotted below), it's going to be the same N4 process they're already making in Taiwann (which is, as everyone knows, part of the the same process generation as the N5, and is thus "5 nm").
Yes, "5 nm" isn't really 5 nm, but that's been the case for all the chip manufacturers, and everyone knows this (though TSMC does push this more than Intel, using smaller numbers for the same feature size).
But while the values don't have any correspondence to absolute feature sizes, at least the convention has been that a smaller number means a new process generation. Thus TSMC was being sleazy by using the number "4" to designate these chips instead of "5", since by so doing they were marketing them as if they were a new generation of process, which they're not. Instead, they're merely another refinement of their 5 nm generation of chips.
Their N3 ("3 nm") chips, by contrast, really are a new node size.
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