Posted on Wednesday, August 22 2018 @ 13:03 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
DigiTimes
picked up word from industry sources that TSMC's 7nm and 5nm processes have landed a lot of 2019 orders for AI chips. The sources believe AI will be the main driver of demand for TSMC's newest nodes, and not smartphone SoCs.
TSMC has started commercial production of 7nm chips for smartphone SoCs, and is gearing up for 5nm chip production next year. The foundry has secured new 7nm and 5nm chip orders for 2019 from mainly AI chip developers, the sources indicated.
TSMC is expected to see demand for 7nm and 5nm chips from AI chip companies stronger than that from other chip firms in 2019, given that AI solutions demand greater computing performance and lower power consumption, the sources said. AI chip developers' ability to attract additional capital is also encouraging the firms to pursue sub-10nm node technologies, the sources continued.
