Tsmc starts shipping euv n7 +, amd chips among its customers

TSMC announced today that its N7 + process will be marketed in large quantities, and the company already has clients, including AMD, who have publicly stated that they will use the new 7nm + process for their future Zen 3-based chips.

TSMC begins shipping EUV N7 + chips that will add higher density and power improvements

Not "just" the first TSMC process using the long-awaited extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, TSMC also claims that N7 + is the industry's first commercially available EUV process. The company did not clarify which products the new chips will use.

The Taiwanese company claims that N7 + is the first EUV-based process to deliver products to the market and that it is creating enough capacity for multiple clients. With that claim, TSMC would beat Samsung, which announced a year ago that 7nm production had started. Huawei and AMD have publicly indicated that they will use TSMC technology, but AMD's Zen 3 chips will be ready for launch in the second half of 2020.

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TSMC claims that its production of N7 + is one of the fastest in its history and the company goes on to say that N7 + is already matching the returns of the original 7nm process from 2018 that debuted with Apple's A12 chip. The N7 + went into series production in May and will be followed by the slightly improved N6 in late 2020, with a density similar to the N7 + but fully compatible with the N7's design standards.

N7 + is derived from TSMC's regular N7 (which appears to have some supply issues) and basically serves as the company's first EUV-enabled process technology, utilizing expensive ASML steppers for a limited number of critical layers. N7 + provides customers with 15-20% more density and better power consumption. These are all advantages for the upcoming chips that make use of it, such as AMD and its fourth-generation Ryzen processors.

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