E-Cat
Member
Assuming that PS5 and Xbox 4 will again have AMD's APUs and come out in the 2019-2021 window, GF's 7nm LP/LP+ is basically a lock because there's nothing else. NVIDIA use TSMC, but AMD haven't since 28nm. The GF 7nm LP process is very comparable to TSMC's 7FF, both having a 40nm Minimum Metal Pitch, offering 6T cells and a nearly identical Contacted Poly Pitch (56 GF vs 57 TSMC).
https://www.semiwiki.com/forum/cont...alfoundries-discloses-7nm-process-detail.html
(e.g. 7.5T = 7.5 track cells)
While GF 7nm risk production is slated to begin a year after TSMC, the first year of TSMC 7nm will be used for mobile partners first such as Apple, Qualcomm, etc.; Whereas GF will use their 7nm for AMD first, so both AMD and NVIDIA will launch a 7nm GPU by the same time, probably in H1/19.
There is a growing consensus in the semiconductor industry that 5nm cannot be rushed, lest they wanna face another 10nm situation again. So, it will probably take a long time to get to the "real 5nm" that will use something like stacked horizontal silicon nanowires, and who knows what will come after that?
Enjoy the upcoming consoles, gents, because the 10th generation may be pushing 2030!
https://www.semiwiki.com/forum/cont...alfoundries-discloses-7nm-process-detail.html
GLOBALFOUNDRIES licensed their 14nm process from Samsung and decided to skip 10nm because they thought it would be a short-lived node. At 7nm GLOBALFOUNDRIES has taken advantage of the additional technical resources they acquired from IBM to develop their own process.
7LP (Leading Performance) will offer a greater than 40% performance improvement relative to 14nm or greater than 60% lower power. Area scaling will be approximately 2x and the die cost reduction will be greater than 30%, with greater than 45% in target segments. Initial customer products on 7LP are expected to launch in the first half of 2018 with volume production in the second half of 2018.
The 7LP process will be produced with optical lithography and what we now know is the Contacted Poly Pitch (CPP) will be 56nm and the Minimum Metal Pitch (MMP) will be 40nm produced with Self-Aligned Double Patterning (SADP). A 6-track cell will be offered with a cell height of 240nm. The high density 6T SRAM cell size is 0.0269 microns squared. A 7LP+ process is also planned that will take advantage of EUV when it is ready to offer improved performance and density. <-- will appear approx. a year after 7LP
The data in the table [see article] illustrates the need for design-technology co-optimization (DTCO) at the leading edge. Intel and Samsung have the smallest CPP and MMP values but because GLOBALFOUNDRIES and TSMC offer 6T cells, they achieve smaller cell heights and ultimately GLOBALFOUNDRIES has the smallest CPP x Cell Height value. Samsung achieves the smallest SRAM cell size and through the use of EUV we expect Samsung to have the lowest mask count.
GLOBALFOUNDRIES 7LP adds a competitive 7nm process to customer options for leading edge design and production. The process parameters are competitive across the board and provide leading density. The availability of the FX-7 ASIC platforms offers customers an additional engagement path not available at other foundries.
(e.g. 7.5T = 7.5 track cells)
While GF 7nm risk production is slated to begin a year after TSMC, the first year of TSMC 7nm will be used for mobile partners first such as Apple, Qualcomm, etc.; Whereas GF will use their 7nm for AMD first, so both AMD and NVIDIA will launch a 7nm GPU by the same time, probably in H1/19.
There is a growing consensus in the semiconductor industry that 5nm cannot be rushed, lest they wanna face another 10nm situation again. So, it will probably take a long time to get to the "real 5nm" that will use something like stacked horizontal silicon nanowires, and who knows what will come after that?
Enjoy the upcoming consoles, gents, because the 10th generation may be pushing 2030!