According to Intel management, when the first 7nm products of the microprocessor giant debut in two years, they with 5nm products from Taiwanese TSMC. Yes, not so. Taiwanese sources citing anonymous representatives of the island industry that in 2021, Intel will have to deal with TSMC's improved 5nm process technology. This will be the N5+ or 5nm Plus process, the second generation of the 5nm process from the world's largest contract chipmaker.
As you know, as TSMC management regularly reminds about, the company launched risky production with 5 nm standards in the first quarter of this year. Mass production with 5nm (5N) standards in the first or second quarter of 2020. There is one nuance in the exact timing of the launch of mass production with 5 nm standards by TSMC. To work with these technological standards, the company is building a new plant - Fab 18. As soon as Fab 18 is , it will be possible to talk about the start of production with 5 nm standards. This process can stretch from the end of 2019 to the second quarter of 2020 inclusive. But even if we take deadlines, TSMC will launch commercial production with 5 nm standards no later than April-June 2020.
It follows from the above that the company will start risky production with N5+ norms or improved 5nm process technology in the first quarter of 2020. The source says it right. A year later, the company will be ready to start mass production of chips using the N5 + process technology. It is this process technology that Intel will have to compare its manufacturing achievements with when it introduces its first 2021nm discrete GPUs in 7. AMD and NVIDIA, as longtime TSMC customers, by this time have every chance to release both 5nm GPUs and hatch plans to launch graphics solutions based on an improved 5nm process technology.
To date, there is nothing to say about the TSMC N5 + technical process, except for one thing. This workflow will partly use EUV range scanners. The depth of use of 13,5nm scanners will determine how much better the N5+ process will outperform the N5 process.
Source: 3dnews.ru