Dozens of Companies Adopt TSMC's 3nm Process Technology
by Anton Shilov on July 28, 2023 11:00 AM EST
Designing chips for modern, leading-edge manufacturing technologies is an expensive endeavor. Still, dozens of companies have already adopted TSMCs N3 and N3E (3 nm-class) fabrication processes, according to disclosures made by TSMC and Synopsys.
"Synopsys IP for TSMC's 3nm process has been adopted by dozens of leading companies to accelerate their development time, quickly achieve silicon success and speed their time to market," said John Koeter, senior vice president of marketing and strategy for IP at Synopsys.
TSMC has been producing chips using its latest N3 (aka N3B) fabrication technology (with up to 25 EUV layers and support for EUV double patterning) since late 2022 and intends to start making products on its simplified N3E manufacturing process (with up to 19 EUV layers and without EUV double patterning) in Q4 2023.
Previously, TSMC disclosed that its N3 nodes had been adopted by designers of high-performance computing (HPC) and smartphone SoCs and that the number of adopters was higher compared to N5 early in its lifecycle. Meanwhile, TSMC never mentioned the number of companies that had decided to use its 3 nm-class fabrication processes.
Synopsys is a major IP developer and electronic design automation tools provider, so it means a lot when it says that dozens of companies have licensed its IP for TSMC's N3 fabrication technologies. But Synopsys is not the only IP designer out there, and companies like Cadence also supplied their N3-compatible IP to other fabless chip developers. It is safe to say that the number of their clients is also significant.
TSMC's N3 family of process technologies includes baseline N3 (N3B), relaxed N3E with a bit reduced transistor density but widened process window for better yields, performance-enhanced N3P that is IP compatible with N3E will be production ready in the second half of 2024, and N3X for extremely high-performance applications that are due in 2025.
The IP licensed by Synopsys right now can be used for N3, N3E, and N3P production nodes.
Sources: Synopsys
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shabby - Friday, July 28, 2023 - link
I was wondering what this embedded video player was in the middle of the article, it keeps saying "This video cannot be played because of a technical error. (Error Code: 102700)"I disabled my adblocker and holy shit my eyes... thank you adblocker!
AusMatt - Friday, July 28, 2023 - link
Shh...don't tell them!PeachNCream - Saturday, July 29, 2023 - link
Yeah the entire site is an advert. It's quite horrible. I held out of a long while as I hoped leaving the adblock disabled would support operations with income, but Anandtech is quite possibly one of the worst sites out there. Lathering everything with ads had a hand in turning the site into the shambling zombie it is today.brucethemoose - Sunday, July 30, 2023 - link
> Lathering everything with ads had a hand in turning the site into the shambling zombie it is today.This is the case for pretty much all text news.
YouTube (and other social media) stole most PC hardware journalism readers. SEO trash gets 90%+ of whoever is left, adblockers get another fraction of what's left from that.
This has been going on for years, and its getting much worse, very quickly.
TBH I have respect for *anyone* in good tech journalism still soldiering on.
Threska - Monday, July 31, 2023 - link
Hiding behind a paywall most likely.sheh - Monday, July 31, 2023 - link
>YouTube (and other social media) stole most PC hardware journalism readersCan't read videos...
sheh - Monday, July 31, 2023 - link
The AnandTech video? I'm not sure what's the point, since it's not an ad for anyone yet it's stuck in every article.Annoyingly, animated even with the browser's autoplay disabled. Maybe JS animated.
I'm not really looking to block ads, just, in order: motion of any kind, JS, cookies.
Anymoore - Tuesday, August 1, 2023 - link
N3E is still double patterning with EUV at least densest layers, they had double patterning EUV as early as 5nm.Anymoore - Tuesday, August 1, 2023 - link
N3E is really N3.5?