So far, there is plenty of movement in this network rumor that Intel could move to quiet its 5nm manufacturing facility, and this leak provides one true point in this regard. While that concern for AMD and NVIDIA has been an open secret, this leak comes to validate Intel's problems around its manufacturing facilities, problems that will force the company to use TSMC for its dedicated Xe models. .
Zen 4, RDNA3, Hipper and Xe, all at 5nm
After what seemed like centuries of durability, it now turns out that things are getting hotter in the industry. We have already discussed that NVIDIA has plans to become more aggressive with changing locations in order to "catch" AMD, and that NVIDIA 7nm
But the big surprise has always been to see Intel among those who will use this node at 5 nm from TSMC, something that may seem like a contradiction at first but most logical: Intel's findings are already fully operational, and the TSMC process is fully ready to make large GPUs, dedicated, and you can say that the team involved may have a lot of knowledge of the TSMC design process.
In terms of leaks, here are the TSMC programs about this production node (your own translation):
Strategies for SMC 5nm TSMC 5nm N5 Development and N5 + Advanced Node
Full production rate: total product launch by 2022, reaching 1 million new arrivals.
More production by 2022: Apple A14 / A14X, Huawei HiSilicon: Kirin 1000 and network processor.
More production for 2021 – 2022: AMD Zen 4 processor architecture and RDP3 architecture for GPUs. High speed of operation on the Broadcom network. Qualcomm Snapdragon 875 and another 5G modem. NVIDIA Hopper Design. MediaTek 2000 Series range. Intel Xe architecture for GPUs or FPGAs. The Apple A15. Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 1100 for AI and servers.
Intel's move to take advantage of this TSMC might surprise many people, but it makes more sense as we've talked about before, and that Intel's team, with many AM-RaD employees such as Raja Koduri, was already working closely with TSMC and this means it would not be difficult for them to adapt their design of this lithograph. This means that Intel will simplify the manufacturing process, since they would have to worry only about the design and not the manufacturing process.
On the other hand, it looks like NVIDIA will launch Hipper GPUs (probably based on MCM design) next year and using this 5nm lithograph from TSMC, while AMD will do the same with its RDNA3 GPUs and so is the construction of the expected processor Zen 3.
Whatever the case, things are becoming more attractive to the industry and it is reported that in the next two years it will be hot in the hegemony race of processors (where it looks like AMD executives are currently taking the cat out of the water) and, most of all, GPUs.
