News on April 13, according to news given by the upstream industry chain, TSMC was slashed by Huawei HiSilicon for 5nm wafer production, and the related production capacity gap was all eaten by Apple.
The
The news pointed out that Apple also requested TSMC to add nearly 10,000 pieces of production capacity in the fourth quarter. With the addition of large customers such as Huida and Supermicro, the 7nm wafer production volume was simultaneously increased. TSMC's 5nm is not only on schedule and the production capacity is fully open, 7nm continues to be full By the end of the year.
TSMC will hold a law conference this Thursday. TSMC has previously announced that the 5nm process is ready for mass production, and it is expected to increase volume in the second quarter, while optimistic about the two main processes of 5nm and 7nm.
In fact, before this, the industry chain has revealed that Apple ’s iPhone 12 series to be released in 2020 is expected to include four models, all of which will use the A14 processor. However, although they all support 5G networks, the baseband is not integrated in In the processor (Qualcomm Snapdragon X55), this also greatly reduces the difficulty of chip packaging.
In order to ensure their own needs, according to sources in the industry chain, Apple has already subscribed to 2/3 of the capacity of TSMC's 5nm process, and it will begin mass production in June this year, and TSMC has already completed the trial production of 5nm process. At present, the yield has climbed to 50% (this performance is better than the initial development of the 7nm process). The initial monthly production capacity is 50,000 pieces, which will gradually increase to 70,000 to 80,000 pieces.
According to TSMC official data, compared to 7nm (first-generation DUV), the new 5nm chip based on the Cortex A72 core can provide 1.8 times the logic density, 15% faster speed, or 30% lower power consumption, the same process SRAM also Very good and reduced area.
TSMC has sharply increased its capital expenditures this year, from the original US $ 11 billion to US $ 14-15 billion, an increase of up to 40%, of which US $ 2.5 billion is used for 5nm process expansion and 15nm process is used for 7nm process expansion.
According to TSMC's plan, the 5nm process will first be mass-produced at the Nanke Fab 18 plant, and the Q3 electromechanical room capacity will reach 55,000 wafers / month next year. The Fab 18 plant's second-phase project also plans 55,000 wafers / month The production capacity is expected to be ready in the first half of 2021.
In addition, relevant people also said that Apple released the preliminary iOS mobile device application processor (AP) estimated demand shows that the total output of the A14 processor will be about 50% to 60% higher than the A13, or even higher, this is because iPhone 12 has at least 4 models to use (Apple has enough stock).
