Move over, 20nm, 2015 will be the year of fast and frugal 16nm mobile chipsets
TSMC has taped out a 16nm process that is 40% faster than the current 20nm designs, like Apple's A8, or Samsung's Exynos 7, yet consumes 50% less power, paving the way for even faster and more frugal mobile chipsets next year.
The 16FF+ production method of the foundry will pass quality and reliability certifications this month, and will be ready to go into cusomter processors next year, with 60 designs already lined up, said TSMC. The new 16nm chipsets allow up to 2.3 GHz ARM Cortex-A57 core speeds, with their frugal Cortex-A53 sidekicks consuming just 75mW for the mundane tasks.
What this all means is that next year we will have even faster and at the same time more battery-efficient phones and tablets, which can all get behind, so we can't wait to see what chipsets will Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung and the others churn out with the new technology. Actually, it's Huawei that is one of the first clients for the 16nm manufacturing process of TSMC, so look for a fast and power-humble Kirin chipset to hit its flagships pretty soon.
source: Digitimes
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: