Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Chips: "TSMC's Arizona Fab 21 is already making 4nm chips — yield and quality reportedly on par with Taiwan fabs"

Big if true.

From Tom's Hardware, January 11:

It was alleged to be for AMD and Apple, but Raimondo did not say that.

TSMC has started producing chips at its Fab 21 near Phoenix, Arizona, using its 4nm-class process technology, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Reuters. This marks the first time such a cutting-edge production node has been manufactured in the United States. The confirmation from a high-ranking official comes months after the first unofficial information emerged that the fab was mass-producing chips for Apple.

"For the first time ever in our country's history, we are making leading-edge 4nm chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan," Raimondo told Reuters.

According to unofficial information, TSMC's Fab 21 in Arizona is manufacturing at least three processor models: the A16 Bionic system-on-chip used in Apple's iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus; the main processor of Apple's S9 system-in-package for smartwatches, which has two 64-bit cores and a quad-core neural engine; and an AMD Ryzen 9000-series CPU. These chips are produced on TSMC's 4nm-class—N4 and N4P—process technologies....

....MUCH MORE