Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is to start high-volume production of its most advanced 20-nanometer (nm) chips next month, a move the chipmaker expects will give its revenue a double-digit boost next year.
The move would also make TSMC the world’s leading contract chipmaker supplying 20nm chips.
Analysts say that mass 20nm chip production could put TSMC in a position to dethrone Samsung Electronics Co as the supplier of Apple Inc’s next-generation A8 chip next year.
TSMC chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) said in October that 20nm chips would start contributing to the firm's revenue in the second quarter of next year, following the launch of mass production in the first three months of next year.
“The 20nm system-on-a-chip is the most critical ramp-up TSMC has carried out in years. We will start high-volume production of this chip next month,” TSMC president and CEO Mark Liu (劉德音) said in a keynote speech at the company’s annual supply chain management forum in Hsinchu.
Liu said TSMC is on track to ship the chips to its clients on schedule. Thus far, the world’s top contract chipmaker has taped out 20 of the 20nm chips, Liu said in his first public speech after being promoted to co-CEO last month.
The company is expected to ship 165,000 20nm chips to Apple next year, accounting for 10 percent of its revenue that year, Daiwa Capital Markets analyst Eric Chen (陳慧明) said.
Credit Suisse analyst Randy Abrams forecast Apple orders to account for 6.5 percent of TSMC’s overall revenue next year, adding that Qualcomm Inc and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) are to become key clients for TSMC next year.
In the speech, Liu highlighted TSMC’s progress on the 16nm technology front, saying that the company recently initiated the production of 16nm chips and planned to begin mass production within a year.
TSMC is expected to make US$5.4 billion in revenue from advanced 28nm chips this year and the figure could further increase next year, Liu said.
The company, which commands more than 90 percent of the global 28nm chip market, said earlier this year that 28nm chips would be the biggest contributor to revenue this year, since production capacity and revenue are set to triple on an annual basis.
Last quarter, 28nm chips made up 32 percent of TSMC’s revenue of NT$162.58 billion (US$5.48 billion).
As a result, Liu said TSMC’s revenue would show a 17 to 18 percent annual growth this year and grow by double-digit percentage points next year, supported by continuing demand for mobile applications.
That figure would beat the 9 percent annual growth forecast for the contract chipmaking industry, as well as the semiconductor industry’s 5 percent growth.
Google on Thursday restructured its responsible artificial intelligence (AI) efforts to centralize teams under a single executive, Marian Croak, a move by the Internet giant to stabilize groups working on ethics research and products after months of chaos. Croak, a vice president of engineering, would be the lead for the Responsible AI Research and Engineering Center of Expertise, she said in a YouTube video announcing her appointment. The Alphabet Inc unit has sought to defuse employee rancor stemming from the acrimonious departure of a prominent black researcher, Timnit Gebru. Croak, a black Google executive who is currently focused on site-reliability matters, would report
‘LESS DUMB’ LIQUIDITY: If more companies start to speculate in cryptocurrency, ‘we’re going to be in bubble territory before you know it,’ a market analyst said Bitcoin is closing in on a market value of US$1 trillion, a surge that is helping cryptocurrency returns far outstrip the performance of more traditional assets such as stocks and gold. The largest token has added more than US$415 billion of value this year to about US$956 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, which includes bitcoin and four other coins, has more than doubled. Speculators, corporate treasurers and institutional investors are thought to have stoked bitcoin’s volatile ascent. Crypto believers are dueling with skeptics for the dominant narrative around the climb: The former see an asset being
PUNCTURE-PROOF: Air Fom tires are made of material used in sports shoe soles and offer a comfortable ride, although people are still skeptical about solid tires Getting a flat tire is a nightmare for cyclists, sending home early any rider who had ventured outdoors without a repair kit or spare inner tubes. Although punctured tires have long been a pain point for cyclists, the problem has never been effectively resolved, despite the bicycle industry going back centuries. A few products have been developed to help reduce the likelihood of flat tires: puncture-resistant tires, which are thicker than usual tires or come with a protective layer; anti-puncture tapes, which are placed between the tire and inner tube to offer extra protection; and tubeless systems that use sealant to close
LONG-TERM PLAN: The company expects growth in revenue from its automotive business this year and that it would contribute meaningfully to sales from 2023 Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) new electric vehicle (EV) platform is expected to help launch vehicles later this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Saturday, signifying major progress in the electronics giant’s push into the automotive industry. Two light vehicles designed using the company’s MIH Open Platform would be unveiled in the fourth quarter, Liu told reporters at the company’s headquarters in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District (土城). Hon Hai might at the same time also help launch an electric bus, he said. Hon Hai has been seeking to expand its automotive capabilities at a time when technology companies including
RSS