EETimes’ Mark LaPedus has just published an article covering today’s remarks made by TSMC’s Chairman and CEO Morris Chang at the company’s Technology Day. Among the most significant ones in my opinion:
- PCs and then cell phones have been the big drivers for the IC industry. Now add mobile products (smart phones and tablets) to this list. Note that three of the four drivers are strongly apps-driven.
- TSMC has already had 75 tape outs on its 28-nm technology. That’s a faster adoption rate than TSMC observed for its 40-nm process technology at a comparable development stage. This gives credence to the claim that new process-node adoption rates are trending to faster after a period where the adoption rates declined. Credit the new apps-driven world for this.
- TSMC has poured what Chang calls “significant R&D” into 3D chip development with through-silicon vias (TSVs). The company sees it as a “paradigm shift” and is calling it “systems-level scaling.”
