Doug S (foo.delete@this.bar.bar) on August 25, 2014 10:24 pm wrote:
> juanrga (nospam.delete@this.juanrga.com) on August 25, 2014 12:29 pm wrote:
> > And TSMC has accelerated roadmap and will start 16nm volume production in 1Q15:
> >
> > Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will advance volume production on its 16nm
> > process to the first quarter of 2015 with monthly output of 50,000 wafers in order to meet demand
> > for Apple's A9 processors, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) has reported.
> >
> > TSMC originally planned to kicked off 16nm volume production in second-quarter 2015.
> > TSMC faces strong competition from Samsung Electronics' foundry business.
> >
> > http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20140825PB201.html
> >
> > Broadwell-EP @14nm vs ARM server-class @16nm will be an interesting figth to watch.
>
>
> If true, and if TSMC delivers, what difference does it make in the end? TSMC will be devoting all of that leading
> edge capacity to Apple, so they will end up delivering 16nm even later to the rest of their customers.
>
> In addition, Apple has specific needs and to them performance is less important than power, yield and
> time to market. All the effort spent getting things working for Apple will probably make TSMC even
> later with a high performance 16nm process (i.e. one desirable for GPUs, ARM server CPUs, etc.)

I think it is just the contrary. The reason why TSMC is accelerating roadmaps is because of Samsung strong entry in the foundries business.

TSMC doesn't want only Apple as customer and will compete with Glofo/Samsung for other customers, including AMD.

Probably you heard that AMD's K12 is being designed for 14/16nm. Last leaks say that TSMC was now the first in AMD options list. Time will say.