Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said the test chips of ARM dual-core Cortex-A9 processors using its 28 nanometer (nm) process technology delivered a performance speed of up to 3.1 Gigahertz (GHz) with low levels of power leakage.
Cliff Hou (侯永清), a vice president in TSMC’s research and development division, said that at 3.1GHz, the 28nm dual-core processor was twice as fast as rival products.
“This work demonstrates how ARM and TSMC can satisfy high performance market demands,” Hou said in a statement. “With other implementation options, 28nm HPM [high performance for mobile applications] process technology is also highly suited to a wide range of markets that prize performance and power efficiency.”
TSMC, the world’s largest -contract chipmaker, has out-performed its rivals in the production of 28nm wafers, starting shipments last year to major customers including Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Altera Corp, Nvidia Corp, Qualcomm Inc and Xilinx Inc.
Last week, TSMC announced that it would increase capital spending for this year to a record US$8.5 billion after customers complained about not receiving enough 28nm chips for mobile devices like smartphones.
At a quarterly conference with investors and analysts last week in Taipei, TSMC chairman and chief executive officer Morris Chang (張忠謀) said the company expected production of 28nm chips to meet customer demand in the fourth quarter of this year.
The Hsinchu-based company’s latest tests on ARM A9 processor using its 28nm technology showed it capable of achieving performance speeds range from 1.5GHz to 2.0GHz, which is suitable for mobile computing, with a top speed of up to 3.1GHz, which is aimed at high-performance uses, yesterday’s statement said.
“TSMC’s high-performance 28nm process technology is suitable for a wide range of advanced ARM-processor based applications, extending from high--frequency, performance-orientated computing devices to power sensitive applications,” said Jim Nicholas, vice president of marketing at British chipset designer ARM Holdings PLC.
Separately, MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s biggest handset chip designer, said yesterday its Wi-Fi system-on-a-chip, the RT6856, has been incorporated into D-Link Corp’s (友訊) latest Wi-Fi cloud routers.
D-Link, which makes networking equipment and connectivity solutions, began shipments of new cloud routers this spring, -MediaTek said in a separate statement.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to