As soon as the news that TSMC's 3nm process is expected to achieve mass production in the second half of the year, the industry is speculating about which large customers can try it for the first time. In addition to Apple and NVIDIA, two powerful customers, Intel and AMD are also striving for the production capacity of 3nm advanced technology.
It is reported that for the first time, Intel's 14th generation Core "Meteor Lake" processor, which uses its own Intel 4 process and adds EUV lithography technology, will use Tile design and will have at least three different modules; namely the computing module, the SOC-LP module (responsible for I/O) and the GPU module. These modules can be stacked with modules from different process nodes and interconnected using EMIB technology.
It is worth mentioning that the GPU module of Meteor Lake has been upgraded again; the minimum configuration is 96 EU, and the maximum configuration is 192 EU. At the same time, it is possible that the module will be manufactured for the first time using TSMC's 3nm process, the SoC-LP module will be manufactured using TSMC's 4nm or 5nm process, and the remaining computing module is Intel's own Intel 4 process.
It is believed that Intel will order A portion of the chip capacity of the Core 14th generation Meteor Lake processor to TSMC, which is more conducive to avoiding the delay in the production and release schedule of the 14th generation processor; and better compete with Apple's M series custom chips.
On this side, Intel's bold layout of the benign development strategy of future processors, on the other hand, AMD seems to be much more low-key, not only the recent Zen 4 architecture has little news, but also the Zen 5 architecture equipped with TSMC's 3nm process may also be postponed to 2024-2025 release.
Based on the estimated release of the Zen 4 architecture in the second half of 2022, the Zen 5 architecture will also be postponed to the end of 2024 / early 2025 at the earliest. Of course, AMD also has alternatives, such as an optimized version of the N5 node for the Zen 5 architecture (N5P process).
For the products of major architecture upgrades of semiconductor chip companies, if the latest process is not adopted, the performance and significance will be criticized, and I hope that the AMD Zen 5 architecture can have a performance that does not disappoint.
For the more advanced process of 3nm, whether it is R&D/equipment investment, yield guarantee is the need for real money, therefore, TSMC's large customers have placed orders in advance to ensure the orderly supply of their own iterative products. So, the opportunity is reserved only for those who are prepared!