TSMC Receives Permits to Start Construction of Its 3nm Foundry

cageymaru

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TSMC has received a permit to start construction of its 3nm chip factory at the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. Before the chipmaker could start construction, an environmental study was conducted by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to see if the region could supply the necessary water and electricity for the semiconductor fabrication plant. The study found that the plant will use 20% renewable energy and 50% recycled water. The same site will house the 5nm fab which will be up and running by late 2019. The 3nm foundry is expected to be put into operation by 2023.

Last year, hundreds of engineers were involved in early research and development. At present, the 3nm wafer factory in Tainan Park has passed the initial review of the EIA. It covers an area of 28 hectares. It is located close to TSMC's 5nm factory. TSMC has kept the 3nm production schedule confidential in order to prevent its main rival Samsung from accelerating its investment. It is also because the plant has not passed the EIA test. Now with the adoption of the 3nm EIA, TSMC can successfully build the wafer plant. It will become the first wafer foundry service in the world to provide more potent AI chips.
 
EPA? Sure you didn't mean EIA (Energy Information Administration, from what I could find in searches)? Pretty sure the EPA is just a US government body, but I could be wrong. Edit: course, there's also the EPAT (EPA Taiwan), to muddy the waters further...
 
EPA? Sure you didn't mean EIA (Energy Information Administration, from what I could find in searches)? Pretty sure the EPA is just a US government body, but I could be wrong. Edit: course, there's also the EPAT (EPA Taiwan), to muddy the waters further...
From the article: "The factory’s environmental impact assessment was accepted by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) on Dec. 19." So EIA = environmental impact assessment.
 
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What's up with these guys? They researching their own IPs? could probably rule the world if they designed their own hardware.
 
7nm is nuts. 5 and 3? Soon we're going to have to start using a new unit. In 10 years we're going to dealing with pm parts. Unless of course we aren't. You can only go so small, right?
 
Thats impressive doubly so when you think about how fast they're moving, like they're speeding towards a cliff. Even though the transistors shrink the overall sizes shrink less. I doubt the Transistor Gate Pitch will get much smaller than with 5nm. Even heading towards 1nm and newer FET types/technologies theyre going to have to make a drastic change eventually. It wouldn't surprise me to see 3D ICs with heat pipes through the silicon layers or something similar in the future.
 
I recall when we went under 100 nm, it was like OMG
Now i am old enough and have seen enough to just be like,,,, cool.
 
Thats impressive doubly so when you think about how fast they're moving, like they're speeding towards a cliff. Even though the transistors shrink the overall sizes shrink less. I doubt the Transistor Gate Pitch will get much smaller than with 5nm. Even heading towards 1nm and newer FET types/technologies theyre going to have to make a drastic change eventually. It wouldn't surprise me to see 3D ICs with heat pipes through the silicon layers or something similar in the future.

The dies are not shrinking, as much, due to the gap between transistors needing to be wider to prevent cross talk. There has been some headway made in reducing that cross talk, but there needs to be a major paradigm shift in the design to really correct it.
 
I'm skeptical they can pull off a literal 3nm. I haven't heard of memory chips making that shrink, which turns my BS. Meter up.
 
I see someone probably heard of the Banach - Tarski Paradox or Hiblerts infinite hotel paradox.

Time to quote one of the famous Danes " How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress."
 
From the article: "The factory’s environmental impact assessment was accepted by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) on Dec. 19." So EIA = environmental impact assessment.

This is correct. Been there, done that, during the approval process for LNG Pipeline projects :D

They are investing pretty heavily in both AI and quantum computing.

They've actually had massive AI projects running for years and created several quantum singularities in their labs already, they just kept it quiet so Sammy (nor anyone else) would find out. Now all they have to do is figure out how to avoid violating the prime directive, or there will be hell to pay for sure for sure......
 
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