Yes literally. There is no faith required. CC Wei himself has said the very first production wafer will not start until a quarter after iPhone 17 launch and the very first production wafer will not leave a TSMC fab until 2026. It is by definition impossible for there to be N2 anything in 2025. Unless you want to claim CC Wei is lying, it is simply inconsistent with his statements.
AMD Achieves First TSMC N2 Product Silicon Milestone
- Thread starter Daniel Nenni
- Start date
MKWVentures
Moderator
You are a wise man! the forecast I have is #6. I think that could end up being #4. DC accelerators is below forecast, I am guessing client will be above forecast.... will get better feel in 2 weeks after earnings and follow up meetings.I'm guessing Intel is #6? Otherwise you would have said top 5?
siliconbruh999
Well-known member
Gaudi is a good chip but it doesn't have successor and software quirks should have focused on Rialto Bridge instead of Gaudi.
fansink
Well-known member
Pulling this rabbit is going to be one heck of a wild ride, but C.C. Wei, being the master magician, might just have the wand to make it happen!
With the iPhone 17 lineup set to drop on September 9, 2025, pre-orders kicking off September 12, and those 2nm Pro Max units hitting hands on September 19, Wei could work some serious magic by getting 6 million 2nm chips to Apple’s fabricators by July 2025.
By cranking up production right now, like yesterday! and having worked a sweet deal on those $30,000 wafers, TSMC can lean into that extended pre-order and October stock window.
With no Intel JV nonsense clogging things up and some slick tariff-dodging moves, C.C. could have TSMC running circles around Intel’s 18A and leaving Samsung’s 2nm in the dust.
This would cement TSMC’s Apex Predator Status.
There is a third option, N2 yielded faster than expected, which has also been mentioned. We will find out more next week. I expect you are right but I really want an N2 iPhone this year so my fingers are crossed.
And remember, CC Wei under promises, it is the TSMC way.
CC Wei Q1 2025 Call
Finally, I'll talk about our N2 status and A16 introduction. Our 2-nanometer and A16 technology is the industry in addressing the insatiable need for energy-efficient computing and almost the innovators – almost all the innovators are working with us. We expect the number of new tape-out for 2-nanometer technology in the first two years to be higher than both 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer in their first two years, fueled by both smartphone and HPC applications.
N2 will deliver full-node performance and power benefits with 10% to 15% speed improvement at the same power or 20% to 30% power improvement at the same speed and more than 15% chip density increase as compared with N3E. N2 is well on track for volume production in the second half of 2025 are scheduled with a ramp profile similar to N3. With our strategy of continuous enhancement, we also introduced N2P as an extension of N2 family, N2P featured further performance and power benefits on top of N2 and volume production is scheduled for second half 2026.
We also introduced a 16 feature in super power rail or SPR as a separate offering. Compared with the N2P, A16 provides a further 8% to 10% speed improvement at the same power of 15% to 20% power improvement at the same speed and additional 7% to 10% chip density gain. A16 is best suited for specific HPC products with complex signal route and dense power delivery network. Volume production is scheduled for second half 2026.
Amazing progress! Go TSMC!
fansink
Well-known member
C.C. Wei may forecast a timeline, and later improves such timeline, that's not a lie.
Further, gamesmanship in favor of TSMC and it's shareholders, is also not even close to a lie.
I know the engineering challenges are exponentially harder today, but... not that long ago, a "full node" performance improvement was MUCH higher:
TSMC's 16/12nm provides the best performance among the industry's 16/14nm offerings. Compared to TSMC's 20nm SoC process, 16/12nm is 50 % faster and consumes 60% less power at the same speed.
and:
According to TSMC, the 28 nm HP process is targeted for higher speed and performance, and they claim a 45% speed improvement when compared to the 40 nm process.
and:
The 40G process is up to 30% faster than TSMC’s 65nm GP process at the same leakage, or up to 70% lower leakage at the same speed. In addition, it provides up to 45% lower active power than the 65GP process