The whole thing is a bit speculative, but nothing is set in stone when it comes to not missing the connection. A possible list of 5 nm products planned by TSMC has already been confirmed by ChinaTimes and you can find many things on them that you had already suspected: AMD's Zen 4 CPUs and Radeon RDNA 3 graphics processors as well as NVIDIA's Hopper graphics processors, but there was also a really unexpected entry: the Xe graphics from Intel.
There were a lot of rumours beforehand that Intel is also switching to 5 nm and this is just another indicator in the end. But while the part is confirmed via the AMD CPUs and GPUs as well as NVIDIA Hopper, one should consider the entry to Intel Xe rather carefully. But Intel could also outsource TSMC to its competitor when it comes to not losing the connection. As a fallback option, if you can't get it (in time).
After an almost endless period of stagnation, there is finally some movement in the whole story. It is well known that NVIDIA is finally planning to be more aggressive in switching to manufacturing processes, and this year's 7 nm is seen as a transition process to reclaim AMD's market share and then beat AMD back to 5 nm.
While this chinaTimes report confirms earlier leaks that NVIDIA pre-booked the Hopper GPU on TSMC's 5nm node, it also suggests that Intel may also be cutting a piece of the pie in TSMC's 5nm process. This may seem absurd at first, but there may also be some insight into the reality behind it: Intel's factories are already at full capacity, and TSMC's process would be perfect for building large GPUs. Not to mention that the design team involved could gain a lot of experience with TSMC's design process.
Outsourcing to TSMC by Intel could be a move that would surprise many people, but it would make a deeper sense. If Intel's graphics team, which consists of former Radeon executives who have worked closely with TSMC, will be able to focus solely on the design process and not get bogged down in chip manufacturing problems, then this will also guarantee very successful risk diversification for investors.
On the other hand, it seems that NVIDIA will roll out its (probably MCM-based) Hopper GPUs next year on TSMC's 5nm process. This, in turn, becomes extremely exciting in the entirety of all products. This leak also confirms previous digitimes reports that TSMC is on its way to mass production of 5nm products by Q3 2021. Considering that the company is switching to TEU for its advanced 7 nm processes, this is not really surprising, but only logically
Source: ChinaTimes
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