TSMC is Set to Start 5nm Volume Production in April

TSMC is one of the world’s largest chipset manufacturing foundries with companies such as AMD and Apple widely using them for their products. With Team Red recently making the transition to a 7nm node design, however, it did seem like only a matter of time before 5nm production would really kick-off.

Well, in a report via TechPowerUp, it seems that TSMC’s plans for 2020 are well on track as the company has announced that by April this year, their 5nm node production line should be in full operation.

TSMC To Start Full 5nm Production

Around a year ago, TSMC revealed that its design infrastructure for 5nm manufacturing was complete. This didn’t mean, however, that the company was ready to launch itself into full-blown production. As you might expect, these machines take a long time to calibrate correctly with even a minor fault potentially causing major problems.

With that now all (apparently) ready, however, it seems that their initial production line orders are already at capacity with Apple reportedly looking to use it within their Apple’s A14 SoC. Specifically, for their latest iPhones which are expected to launch this September.

What Do We Think?

We are still, at least based on current cycles, still at least a few years away before we see 5nm processors and graphics cards in terms of desktop systems. Particularly since, as above, Apple has a pretty huge order already on the cards. What is clear, however, is that with TSMC ready to start full-production, it’s certainly well on track to be here sooner rather than later!

What do you think? When do you think we’ll see our first desktop-based 5nm graphics card and processors? – Let us know in the comments!