TSMC taps ARM's V8 on road to 16-nm FinFET

Rick Merritt, EETimes
10/16/2012 5:21 PM EDT

SAN JOSE, Calif. – TSMC laid out roadmaps for 20-nm planar, 16-nm FinFET and 2.5-D stacks at its annual event here on Tuesday (Oct. 16). The Taiwan foundry will use ARM’s first 64-bit processor, the V8, as a test vehicle for the 16-nm FinFET process with the first tape out of a test chip probably within the next year.

The advent of double patterning at 20 nm and FinFETs at 16 nm pose significant challenges to chip designers, based on talks with TSMC and partner companies. TSMC’s roadmap is roughly in line with rival Globalfoundries that also hopes to make 20nm chips next year and 14-nm FinFET chips in 2014.

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