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> the utilization rate of TSMC's N7-capable lines will decline to around 50% in early 2023. Will that capacity be utilized by other companies? E.g. what is pr
by glass3 4y ago
> the utilization rate of TSMC's N7-capable lines will decline to around 50% in early 2023.
Will that capacity be utilized by other companies? E.g. what is preventing a RISC-V company from leap-frogging the competition?
- wtallis 4y ago> E.g. what is preventing a RISC-V company from leap-frogging the competition? They would need to have already taped out on N7 and be ready to start mass production now. That doesn't happen overnight. Even if you have taped out a ready-to-fab design, you usually want to start small and run a few rounds of QA on small batches of chips before you start ordering enough wafers to make a dent in TSMC's schedule.
- monocasa 4y agoN7 is a rough node to target. You have the high capital costs for NRE being an EUV node, but N5 is supposed to be cheaper to manufacturer chips on pretty much as soon as N3 is in full swing. So those companies would probably be targeting something in the range of 14nm to 10nm in order to take advantage of the fire sale on late DUV tooling to prove that they can make a working chip to investors, and then leapfrog to N5 after the giants have jumped to N3.