TSMC celebrated the launch of 3nm chip production in Taiwan

Earlier this month, TSMC held an event to mark the start of construction of a semiconductor plant in Arizona, and today in Taiwan the company celebrated the start of mass production of chips on the island.
Notably, such ceremonies are quite unusual for TSMC.According to the publication Focus Taiwan, Taiwan's TSMC today celebrates the beginning of mass production of chips in accordance with the 3-nm process technology.
The Fab 18 plant will start producing the latest and most advanced chips on the territory of South Taiwan Science Park in Tainan.It is very important that such celebratory ceremonies are not typical for TSMC.
Analysts do not rule out that the manufacturer demonstrates loyalty to its native island amid large-scale investments in the United States.
Industry experts say the company is holding the ceremony to show it intends to keep Taiwan as a major hub for chip research, development and manufacturing despite the fact that it is now investing heavily at the other end of the world.Note that Apple will be among the first to receive 3-nm chips.
Although Apple is now claiming the A16 chipset is produced according to the 4nm process, in fact TSMC is treating it as a 5nm variant with some refinements.
The first 3nm chipsets that will be available in Apple products will be the M2 Pro and M2 Max, which will be shipped to Macs in 2023.TSMC factories in Arizona will produce 4nm chips first and only later will produce 3nm chips.
The company's Taiwanese plants will begin producing advanced 3nm products first, with 2nm chipsets due to begin production in 2025.

TSMC feels no downturn in the market - November revenue soared 50.2 percent

TSMC management was optimistic this week about its prospects for contract manufacturing of semiconductor components for US customers, as its budget for building two facilities in Arizona reached $40 billion and its design capacity was tripled.
On a global scale the company also feels good because its November revenue grew by 50.2% compared to the previous year.Image source: TSMCIn accordance with the statistics published by TSMC in November the company made about $7.3 billion in current exchange rates, and this corresponds to the sequential growth of 5.9%, and in annual terms the revenue jumped by 50.2%.
We can not hesitate to call this year a period of significant growth for TSMC, because from January to November the company's revenue grew by 44.6% to $67.6 billion.
For not the easiest year in terms of geopolitics the dynamics is very decent.Let us not forget, however, that not everything is cloudy in TSMC activities.
The amount of capital spending for the current year, it still had to reduce from $40 to $36 billion.
At the last quarterly event the company representatives also complained about the decline in demand for products used in the PC and smartphone segments, some of which are produced on an advanced 7-nm process.
By the middle of next year, the company expects to regain the utilization rate of the respective production lines.
The company also has to postpone the modernization of its facilities due to delays in the supply of lithographic equipment.

If the chip production in Taiwan stops completely, the industry will need at least 5 years to recover

The meeting of top political leaders of China and the US was designed to ease tensions in the Taiwan issue.
A significant portion of semiconductor components are manufactured in Taiwan, and stability in the region is extremely important for the entire global economy.
Some experts believe that in the case of a complete shutdown of Taiwan enterprises, the semiconductor industry will be able to recover only in five years.Image source: TSМSimilar estimates in his interview with Barron's shares the author of the book \"War for chips: the battle for the most important technology in the world\" Chris Miller - Tufts University professor from the United States.
In his opinion, the U.S.
authorities underestimate the possible consequences of a regional conflict that could put Taiwan`s enterprises out of business.
Not only do the island produces up to 90% of advanced semiconductor components, but also the local production volume of chips is so large that no other region in the world can compete with it so far.
Up to a third of the annual increase in computing power in the world is provided by Taiwanese enterprises, according to expert estimates.
In the professor's opinion, the semiconductor crisis of 2020 and 2021, which paralyzed the work of the global automobile industry, is only a pale shadow of the likely problems that an armed conflict involving Taiwan would cause.
Even the PRC's \"nonviolent\" methods of influencing the island's economy can have a significant impact on the determination of Taiwan's leadership to remain independent.By the way, Chris Miller highlights the role of qualified personnel in the formation of the modern semiconductor industry.
The same founder of TSMC, Morris Chang, according to the author of the book, is the man to whom the whole world should be grateful for the technology we now have at our disposal.
For the United States, however, it is important to maintain a sensible immigration policy, since many of the leaders of major technology corporations are migrant workers or their direct descendants, and their role in shaping U.S.
industry and the economy is hard to dispute.

MediaTek will reduce dependence on TSMC by outsourcing chip production to Intel and GlobalFoundries

Reducing dependence on TSMC and its Taiwanese facilities will be an important trend for MediaTek in coming years, as CEO of this mobile processor developer, Rick Tsai, made clear.
The company's CEO explained that the main factor behind this decision will be geographical diversification, as over-reliance on Taiwan concerns not only the company, but also its customers.
Large consumers of semiconductor products, according to Mr.
Tsai, will begin to require chip suppliers to use multiple sources of production: Taiwan will be combined with the U.S.
or Europe.
MediaTek is preparing for the emergence of such requirements and is gradually expanding the geography of its chips production, not just limited to Taiwan.As over time, MediaTek expects to increase the volume of sales of its chips in the U.S.
market, then the localization of production, it is ready to pay close attention.
When TSMC's chip contract manufacturing facility in Arizona will start operating, MediaTek hopes to become its customer.
In addition, the production of processors of this brand will be engaged in GlobalFoundries, which has enterprises in New York State and Singapore.
However, in this case we are talking about the use of not the most advanced lithography, but it is more important to diversify sources.Intel, which has repeatedly reported on cooperation with MediaTek, from the second half of 2024, as explained by Rick Tsai, will provide it with chips, which will be produced by Intel 16 technology in the enterprise in Ireland.
These components will find use in TVs and Wi-Fi routers, and do not require advanced lithography to produce them either.
This market segment is quite large, so the company considers cooperation with Intel in all seriousness.
The head of MediaTek personally observes progress in this area on an almost monthly basis.

TSMC will build another plant in Arizona for $12 billion - 3-nm chips will be produced there

Taiwan's TSMC is preparing to implement another project with multi-billion dollar investments - the company intends to expand the chip factory under construction in Arizona (USA).
In the coming months, the chipmaker plans to announce the construction of an advanced factory north of Phoenix, next to the already under construction facilities that were announced in 2020.
The volume of investments, according to some reports, will be the same as 2 years ago - $ 12 billion.Image source: Maxence Pira/unsplash.comThe company began to actively develop chip production in the U.S.
after Washington has promised semiconductor manufacturers all sorts of grants and incentives for the construction of enterprises on American soil.
Future plant TSMC will produce chips in accordance with the 3-nm process, one of the most advanced to date.In TSMC said that the official ceremony of installation of the first batch of equipment for the manufacture of chips at the first plant in Arizona will be held in December - the beginning of construction was announced two years ago and the beginning of production is scheduled for 2024.
While previously the company was going to produce 5-nm chips in Arizona, now we are talking about more advanced 4-nm variants.
Mass production should begin in 2024.
The timing of commissioning of the second plant is still unknown.The expansion indirectly indicates the manufacturers' optimism about the demand for semiconductors in the long term, even against the backdrop of disappointing market indicators for the current year.
Demand for some chips collapsed after two years of rapid growth during the pandemic, during which demand for computer hardware and electronics skyrocketed.
Many companies, including TSMC, had to go into savings mode and cut capital spending in the short term.Despite the downturn in the industry, semiconductor company executives still expect that in the next decade, global sales will exceed $1 trillion, so intensive investment in manufacturing infrastructure continues, especially since such plans in recent years are actively supported by the United States and Europe, hoping to move the \"center of power\" semiconductor industry from Asia.
Intel and Micron are also trying to save money in the short term, while investing heavily in future projects based on strong demand.This year, the U.S.
has distributed grants for chip production in the amount of $39 billion; the funds themselves will be allocated from next year.
In addition, it also provides tax incentives for equipment for the production of semiconductors.
Europe also intends to increase its production share in the global market of semiconductors up to 20% by 2030.
Large plants typically take several years to build and equip, so companies must make investment decisions in advance.Image source: Robert Murray/unsplash.comThe enormous subsidies in the US and Europe for chip production are a reflection of political leaders realizing their critical importance in the military and civilian sectors.
The active development of the relevant industry in China has caused deep concern in the West, after which the U.S.
stopped promoting the idea of freedom of market relations and imposed tough sanctions on Chinese companies, which include a ban on both exports to the country of advanced chips and equipment for their production.In addition, the United States and its allies are concerned that the most advanced technologies of semiconductors are concentrated in Taiwan, an island that China considers part of its territory.
It is known that in addition to the U.S., TSMC is considering expanding production in Japan and allows the construction of a multibillion-dollar plant in Singapore.

MediaTek unveiled the Dimensity 9200, a 4nm flagship platform with Arm Cortex-X3, ray tracing and Wi-Fi 7

MediaTek unveiled the Dimensity 9200, a flagship mobile single-chip platform that uses the latest solutions for the mobile industry.
It is the first mobile platform to use the Arm Cortex-X3 main core with ARMv9 architecture and a 3.05 GHz operating frequency.
In addition to the Cortex-X3 core, the new chip uses three powerful 2.85 GHz Cortex-A715 cores and four efficient 1.8 GHz Arm Cortex-A510 cores.
The new chip is manufactured according to TSMC's second-generation N4P 4nm process.
Note that the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which will be the main competitor of MediaTek novelty, is rumored to have four core clusters: one Cortex-X3 (3.19 GHz), pairs of Cortex-A715 and A710 (2.8 GHz) and three Cortex-A510 (2.0 GHz).The second breakthrough solution in Dimensity 9200 is the advanced Arm Immortalis-G715 GPU with hardware ray tracing acceleration.
The new flagship platform supports Variable Rate Shading (VRS), that is variable rate shading, which should improve performance.
It also supports LPDDR5X random access memory with data transfer rate up to 8533 Mbit/s and the latest UFS 4.0 ROM.
There is also sixth generation AI processing unit (APU) 690, which provides up to 35% better performance compared to its predecessor, according to ETHZ5.0 benchmark.
It also features up to 30% and 45% reduction in power consumption for image noise removal and upscaling by AI.
The Dimensity 9200 supports up to two displays up to 5K resolution at 60 Hz or 1440p at 144 Hz or 1080p at 240 Hz.
It's also the first chipset to support Wi-Fi 7 at up to 6.5Gbps.
Of course, 5G networks are supported - both up to 6 GHz and millimeter band (mmWave), Bluetooth 5.3 is also provided.The Imagiq 890 image processor is capable of handling RGBW sensors, saving 34% power compared to the previous generation variant.
Finally, MediaTek eXtreme Power Saving technology is used on the basis of AI, allowing to use up to 30% less energy in general.It is expected that the first smartphones based on the Dimensity 9200 will appear on sale before the end of this year.
It is known that back in spring, according to AnTuTu benchmark, smartphones based on the Dimensity 9000 chip for the first time were among the top ten most powerful, displacing Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 models.

Experts explained why electronics manufacturers are \"swimming\" in chips, while automakers suffer from chip shortages

Recently, news about a total chip shortage has been replaced by information about a mitigation of the situation.
What's more, some reports suggest that TSMC is asking its employees to take a leave of absence as computer makers have noticeably reduced orders, and orders from smartphone makers have declined even further, a trend that will continue into 2023.
Meanwhile, while some manufacturers are not experiencing any shortage of semiconductors, many companies are still suffering from acute shortages.Image source: МicronAs Forbes reports, while TSMC's leading customers - Apple, AMD, Intel, MediaTek, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm are constantly developing more and more advanced processors, they are currently very \"conservative\" about sales forecasts and, therefore, production orders.
In other words, the leading electronics component vendors do not need many chips yet.This is not surprising, because in this sector demand is largely determined by demand for PCs, which, according to Gartner, in April 2021 rose to record levels, sales of the top six PC manufacturers grew at a double-digit percentage rate, and for some time, even triple-digit sales of Chromebooks.
This trend could not last forever, and figures have already appeared on the sale of certain models of Chromebooks for literally $79 (in the US) - even components for them cost more, but the market is already crowded, and demand is satisfied for almost years to come.
At the same time for the release of new models manufacturers have to free up their warehouses from old and expect high demand for components in this segment in the foreseeable future is not necessary.
For example, in its latest earnings report Micron Tecnology reported that demand in the calendar year 2022 will on average be lower than supply, which will lead to a build-up of large stocks in the warehouses of suppliers.
Scarcity typically initiates massive investments in building new capacity and mastering new process technologies, resulting in the occasional oversupply crisis.
Surplus is observed in many industries-but not in all.
In particular, there is no abundance on the market of chips for cars.
The point is that most of the semiconductors for cars are produced according to the so-called \"mature\" process technologies, and most of the demand is for 90-nm semiconductors.
These were considered the most advanced solution around 2002, 20 years ago.
Nevertheless, they are quite in demand, since many components simply do not need ultra-modern technology, and the process of transition to it is costly and long.Image source: BMWFactories continue to use the old tools for production and, since this segment is not the most profitable, for most manufacturers there was no need to invest in new capacity.
Such semiconductors weren't quite enough already by the beginning of the pandemic, and 2020 recorded about an eight-week period in which most auto factories had to partially or completely suspend operations due to sanitary restrictions, after which they withdrew their semiconductor orders.Meanwhile, explosive growth in other sectors requiring chips has put \"obsolete\" production capacity to full use, and as Forbes reports, when automakers tried to restart orders, delivery times for them catast

TSMC denied rumors: it has not yet chosen a location for the 1-nm fab

The day before the Taiwanese media reported that TSMC, the largest contract manufacturer of semiconductor components in the world, had already decided on the location for its most advanced facility, which will master the 1N technology production in a few years.
As explained by TSMC representatives, no decisions have been made yet.Image source: TSMC According to Focus Taiwan, the original publication of the Commercial Times, citing an anonymous source, mentioned the intention of TSMC to place the new venture in the technology park Xinzhu in northwestern Taiwan.
According to official reports, TSMC is undecided on the site and is still in the process of finding a suitable location on the island.
As soon as the choice is made, the company promises to make the appropriate announcement.Deputy director of the technology park Xinzhu not commented on rumors about the plans of TSMC, but explained that the resident companies can choose the site in the third area of the park for the construction of production facilities, because the first place is all taken, and the second reserved for recreational areas.It is expected that the company will begin mass production of 3-nm products in the current quarter, and next year revenue from their sales will be as follows Mass production of 2-nm products TSMC will begin in 2025.
The company's management did not speak about terms of mastering more advanced lithography at the last quarterly report conference, but in May there was already information about TSMC's readiness to start development of 1.4nm process.