10nm TSMC next year is an done deal. Given TSMC 7nm in 2018 is a improvement over 10nm, much like 20nm and 16nm, Apple will likely stick with TSMC in 2018 unless TSMC cant provide enough capacity for Apple, an highly unlikely scenario.
TSMC also mentioned a High performance node and Low Power node for 7nm. Since modern leading nodes are ALL mobile SoC, it is interesting they have make both node available at the same time. Which related back to a Rumor about Apple switching to AMD Zen+ Core Design in 2018 for Mac. Much like how consoles are fabbing their own CPU / GPU design.
As I have always wondered why Apple introduced Metal API, may be they will unify PowerVR across their entire product range.
This will leave Intel with basically little to zero in Apple's revenue. Their Modem, should they manage to get into iPhone, are still Fab in TSMC.
Intels modem is bought in like Siri, and its quality is probably no better than when it was developed by Infinion. Its probable that Apple will develop its own modern, just like they eventually did with the iPhone (because Motorola couldn't live up to expectations). In that case Intel has nothing left to offer and that's a good thing because no one wants another stranglehold on the industry.
10nm TSMC next year is an done deal. Given TSMC 7nm in 2018 is a improvement over 10nm, much like 20nm and 16nm, Apple will likely stick with TSMC in 2018 unless TSMC cant provide enough capacity for Apple, an highly unlikely scenario.
TSMC also mentioned a High performance node and Low Power node for 7nm. Since modern leading nodes are ALL mobile SoC, it is interesting they have make both node available at the same time. Which related back to a Rumor about Apple switching to AMD Zen+ Core Design in 2018 for Mac. Much like how consoles are fabbing their own CPU / GPU design.
As I have always wondered why Apple introduced Metal API, may be they will unify PowerVR across their entire product range.
This will leave Intel with basically little to zero in Apple's revenue. Their Modem, should they manage to get into iPhone, are still Fab in TSMC.
These feature sizes are not a given, particularly 7nm which will involve moving to materials other than silicon. Expect delays.
If Intel becomes a commodity chip foundry, will they be monitored to make sure they don't steal chip designs from Apple and others? What's to keep them from simply "using" (yes, stealing) the chip designs they will have the engineering specs for? I've always been worried about Samsung stealing Apple's designs and hope that the US DoJ will go after Intel if they do steal Apple's designs. Of course, the DoJ hates Apple so they'd probably let Intel steal the designs and blame Apple for not protecting them or some BS.
On the other hand, if Intel becomes an ARM foundry, would Apple try and figure out an agreement with Intel that allows Apple and Intel to co-design and produce desktop CPUs or SoC systems that would allow multi-core (6+) A-series CPUs with more powerful GPUs (AMD/Nvidia/?) that would actually compete with Intel's (slow to come to market) desktop CPUs? Removing the power and heat restrictions on the A-series should allow for faster CPUs and more powerful GPUs. I'm not sure Apple is really contemplating changing everything to their A-series but who knows, it might happen? As for building everything in the USA, this would only happen if Apple could design their mobile devices to be 98% robot assembled. This would negate the benefit of the Chinese work force. Of course, Apple still needs China for raw materials.
disclaimer: I could care less about what Trump wants but I would mind seeing more American companies reap the benefits of Apple's production chain. Of course, with robots building everything, the US will need to figure out how to deal with even more unemployment, which also means lack of spending, hurting Apple's bottom line.
As fir Trump he is a hard guy to like but I look at it this way the democrats have demonstrated that they don't deserve to be in office. Obama specifically has fanned the flames of racial hate in this country and undermined the ability of people with lower incomes to move forward. Effectively Obama's policies have had the impact of keeping poor people poor in this country. One of the worst things he has done is to open our borders to people that effectively lower wages, even displace working people, often at rates well below minimum wage. Instead of lifting people up he has pushed them down with a big boot across their neck.
where has Obama opened the borders, specifically? because I'm thinking of his middle of the night immigration raids and that's the opposite of what you're claiming.
also, can you work in some anti-gay rhetoric again?
Oh come on, you have to be completely in the dark as far as the news goes if you think this. The border with Mexico has not been defended and in fact Obama has removed enforcement officers from the border. It isn't like this is a fantasy, you just need to consider the people that are most impacted and that is the people that live in the border states. The flow across the border is as heavy as it has ever been. What everyone should be concerned about is the loss of jobs to this invasion, it pushes down the wages for everybody.
As for Anti Gay rhetoric I've posted nothing of the kind. I may have different opinions of the community but that does not imply an anti gay attitude.
If Intel becomes a commodity chip foundry, will they be monitored to make sure they don't steal chip designs from Apple and others? What's to keep them from simply "using" (yes, stealing) the chip designs they will have the engineering specs for? I've always been worried about Samsung stealing Apple's designs and hope that the US DoJ will go after Intel if they do steal Apple's designs. Of course, the DoJ hates Apple so they'd probably let Intel steal the designs and blame Apple for not protecting them or some BS.
On the other hand, if Intel becomes an ARM foundry, would Apple try and figure out an agreement with Intel that allows Apple and Intel to co-design and produce desktop CPUs or SoC systems that would allow multi-core (6+) A-series CPUs with more powerful GPUs (AMD/Nvidia/?) that would actually compete with Intel's (slow to come to market) desktop CPUs? Removing the power and heat restrictions on the A-series should allow for faster CPUs and more powerful GPUs. I'm not sure Apple is really contemplating changing everything to their A-series but who knows, it might happen? As for building everything in the USA, this would only happen if Apple could design their mobile devices to be 98% robot assembled. This would negate the benefit of the Chinese work force. Of course, Apple still needs China for raw materials.
disclaimer: I could care less about what Trump wants but I would mind seeing more American companies reap the benefits of Apple's production chain. Of course, with robots building everything, the US will need to figure out how to deal with even more unemployment, which also means lack of spending, hurting Apple's bottom line.
As fir Trump he is a hard guy to like but I look at it this way the democrats have demonstrated that they don't deserve to be in office. Obama specifically has fanned the flames of racial hate in this country and undermined the ability of people with lower incomes to move forward. Effectively Obama's policies have had the impact of keeping poor people poor in this country. One of the worst things he has done is to open our borders to people that effectively lower wages, even displace working people, often at rates well below minimum wage. Instead of lifting people up he has pushed them down with a big boot across their neck.
where has Obama opened the borders, specifically? because I'm thinking of his middle of the night immigration raids and that's the opposite of what you're claiming.
also, can you work in some anti-gay rhetoric again?
Oh come on, you have to be completely in the dark as far as the news goes if you think this. The border with Mexico has not been defended and in fact Obama has removed enforcement officers from the border. It isn't like this is a fantasy, you just need to consider the people that are most impacted and that is the people that live in the border states. The flow across the border is as heavy as it has ever been. What everyone should be concerned about is the loss of jobs to this invasion, it pushes down the wages for everybody.
As for Anti Gay rhetoric I've posted nothing of the kind. I may have different opinions of the community but that does not imply an anti gay attitude.
Does it push down everyone's wages or does it lower the cost of production making stuff cheaper and thus increasing you purchasing power? Personally I can't see any mechanism by which the incomes of the lowest few percent of workers affects those on higher incomes. Someone crosses the border from Mexico and Tim and Angela go 'damn, I felt that'?
I think you are a bit off the tracks here. Intel isn't likely to steal any bodies designs. In the case of ARM processors and Apples unique designs theft would be so obvious that Intel would be able to hide it.
As as for co designing chips I would imagine Apple has some input already with all chips that connect to the A series processors. It should be noted that some chips have Apple specific part numbers. As for what Apple will engineer into the A series chips who knows, the next process shrink doubles the space available to them. GPU performance is a given and another core will likely happen but I suspect sometime soon we will see Apple trying to leave the rest of the industry behind. In that regard I'm expecting hardware to support AI/machine learning, functionality. That might happen in an obvious way or they might sneak the functionality into the GPU. Apple will be releasing initial APIs for machine learning in iOS 10, so I suspect there is a long term plan here.
As fir Trump he is a hard guy to like but I look at it this way the democrats have demonstrated that they don't deserve to be in office. Obama specifically has fanned the flames of racial hate in this country and undermined the ability of people with lower incomes to move forward. Effectively Obama's policies have had the impact of keeping poor people poor in this country. One of the worst things he has done is to open our borders to people that effectively lower wages, even displace working people, often at rates well below minimum wage. Instead of lifting people up he has pushed them down with a big boot across their neck.
Couple things. I had a typo in the disclaimer. I meant to say "I wouldn't mind." I also was only talking about Trump's demand that Apple bring all manufacturing back into the US. That's all I was saying about Trump. As for your typo-filled, non-sensible ramblings I don't have anything to say about your comments, especially your uneducated garbage about what Obama has and hasn't done along with your discriminatory comments about immigrants who created the US from the very beginning. Your ancestors were immigrants (if you live in the US) just like mine. Many immigrants are some of the hardest working people in the US while "true Americans" sit on their ass doing nothing.
Well auto correct does suck.
As for immigration there is nothing wrong with that if it is controlled. Sadly Obama has virtually removed all control to the detriment of the entire nation. This isn't rambling of somebody uneducated it is rather the reality that we live in right now, Obama has encouraged migration across the southern border, this is obvious to anybody that has even remotely followed what is happening in the south.
In any event I said nothing discriminatory against immigrants as people, I'm pretty clear about this, the problem is too many coming into the country and lowering the wage scale for everybody. By the way that isn't just people coming in from the south, thousands have been displaced from good paying jobs and replaced with H1B people. It is one thing to encourage immigration to grow the economy but in this case Obamas actions are acting to depress the economy. You really need to consider who is really uneducated here, Obamas policies have depressed wages across the spectrum from the local gardener to the IT organizations that have suffered due to the flood of immigrants.
In a nut shell immigration can be a good thing or a bad thing, it really depends upon the impact on the economy. In any event you can't rationally think that I'm against people that have recently come to this country. The people themselves are not a problem, and frankly I have no desire to discriminate against any particular person. it is rather the collective damage that excessive immigration is having right now that is the problem. Personally I think you need to work a little harder to understand what is going on here in the USA. The standard of living isn't what it use to be and frankly we need to turn that around before we become a third world country with most of the population in poverty.
10nm TSMC next year is an done deal. Given TSMC 7nm in 2018 is a improvement over 10nm, much like 20nm and 16nm, Apple will likely stick with TSMC in 2018 unless TSMC cant provide enough capacity for Apple, an highly unlikely scenario.
TSMC also mentioned a High performance node and Low Power node for 7nm. Since modern leading nodes are ALL mobile SoC, it is interesting they have make both node available at the same time. Which related back to a Rumor about Apple switching to AMD Zen+ Core Design in 2018 for Mac. Much like how consoles are fabbing their own CPU / GPU design.
As I have always wondered why Apple introduced Metal API, may be they will unify PowerVR across their entire product range.
This will leave Intel with basically little to zero in Apple's revenue. Their Modem, should they manage to get into iPhone, are still Fab in TSMC.
TSMC will likely win not just because of their advance processes very likely delivering 10nm late this year or early next, but also due their ability to stack dies and a high performance manner. Last I knew Intel has nothing happening here. IF, its a big if, TSMC stacked die process is as successful as it seems to be a the moment I see Apple having a hard time going with any manufacture that can't match that capability.
As for AMD & Apple rumors, I'd love to see Apple adopt at least a bit of AMD's hardware if for nothing else to put Intel under pricing pressure and maybe force Intel to reconsider the high prices it charges for Xeon processors used in the Mac Pro and even laptop processors.
Apple went with Metal for the same reason everybody else went with new high performance solutions. The OpenGL people where just too wrapped up in their creation to consider the things people really wanted or needed from modern GPU's.
I really like the idea of zero revenue for Intel long run. They have had a very negative impact not the processor market in the sense that competition was basically crushed for a long time. It is a very positive thing to see the success ARM is having, I'd love to see a high performance ARM based laptop from Apple but would take one from somebody else if it ran Linux. For ARM to really break out of the mobile arena they need a company the size of Apple to champion their hardware in non mobile devices. In the mean time ZEN based Macs might help persuade Intel to be a little more flexible with pricing of their hardware.
This one can go either way. I believe that TSMC is ahead of Intel in fabrication technology at this point. However, Intel is able to offer a solution where the modem is integrated into the SoC.
The integrated modem may be important in a product like the watch and Apple may use Intel instead of Samsung to fab the S series of watch SoCs as a result. I see that one happening. However, the phone and the iPad have much larger power supplies and not nearly as power constrained as the watch. Separate modems in these devices are much less problematic. I don't see TSMC being displaced in these products.
How it plays out over the long term is anyone's guess. If Apple puts out a watch that can make calls independently of the phone and allows tethering of the iPad for data, such would be an ideal use situation for me and I would move from the iPhone to the watch. It should be straightforward and Apple could build an interface to allow the large battery in the iPad to feed power to the watch SoC when the devices are tethered for data, using the LTE modem in the SoC.
Such a scenario could lead to displacement of the iPhone for the watch and Intel could win big. However, if the iPhone remains dominant, TSMC will remain the dominant supplier of chips to Apple.
The watch seems to be the key. And if integrating the Intel modem into the S series SoC provides the better overall performance to power ratio to the combination of a separate Intel modem with a more advanced SoC from TSMC on a smaller node with InFO, Intel stands to benefit greatly. But if the TSMC chip is superior, Intel will have to rely on income from their modems primarily.
One thing is certain. Intel will have to up their game and start delivering based on Apple's schedule. Apple will not have to wait for Intel's ability to deliver the chips. Because TSMC and Samsung are more than happy to get Intel's business.
NO. TSMC is not ahead of INTEL. TSMC future 7nm tech is about the same As intels 14nm tech.
To quote that really interesting article in eetimes about TSMC fab road map... (From april 2016) BTW, use a browser without adblock, otherwise you will not beable to read it.
...Some observers were underwhelmed, claiming TSMC’s road map to 7nm will only bring it in line with the 14nm process in which Intel is currently ramping its Skylake CPUs....
I think AI, for once, has been very clear in the title.
Good point. I was bouncing back and forth between MacRumors and AI. The MR headline is tad more ambiguous.
AI has been clear on the title, but the line that says TSMC as "the firm currently responsible for the A-series processors found in the iPhone, iPad and more." muddies the picture. It implies TSMC has more responsibility for the A Series chips than they have.
On an unrelated note: Anyone else getting the annoying AI "Leave Page Warning" dialog? Recently getting the dialog quite often when clicking on AI links - doesn't make sense to be asked if I want to stay on the page or leave it when traversing through AI article.
If true (and my hunch is that it's true), this is a huge strategic shift for Intel. I'm sure it's not easy for a lot of Intel folks to swallow their pride and get into the foundry business, but it's not clear what else they could have done (other than watch their manufacturing lead whither away, followed by profits)
True and interesting. Has chipmaking now become commoditized?
It's not commoditized (there are few players and huge capital outlays), but this means you can't rely on your own products to subsidize the bleeding edge R&D for your future products. That's the same quandry Samsung is with Apple moving away from them.
Away from the bleeding edge, say 20nm right now, yeah it becomes commoditized.
Then Intel better get its chip process lashi together. For decades they led the world and now they are delaying one process after another, like 10nm---haven't even heard them talk about shipping 7nm but TSMC is
You have to be carefull with process naming, Intel's 10nm is NOT the same as TSMC's 10nm. Those process name are basically fact free. Intel lost its huge edge, but its still ahead.
The problem is that their own chip business is possibly not enough in the future is not enough to sustain this lead. They had no real competition at the top end, so they were doddling along for a decade. (which it was in a time were people like Apple who wanted the latest process didn't exist outside X86). Now, TSMC and Samsung are closing in and many people are moving to ARM for their computing needs (not yet for the high end, but it could happen if Intel does nothing)
There will be plenty of A Chip manufacturing to go around.
iMacs, MacBooks and MacPros, Apple Cars will all soon run on ARM so Intel can continue to make chips for them as TSMC could not meet the demands,,, iMac will becomes like 27" iPad panel hooked on a stand. Apple's new flash optimized APFS will work well on those machines as none of them will have hard disks.
10nm TSMC next year is an done deal. Given TSMC 7nm in 2018 is a improvement over 10nm, much like 20nm and 16nm, Apple will likely stick with TSMC in 2018 unless TSMC cant provide enough capacity for Apple, an highly unlikely scenario.
TSMC also mentioned a High performance node and Low Power node for 7nm. Since modern leading nodes are ALL mobile SoC, it is interesting they have make both node available at the same time. Which related back to a Rumor about Apple switching to AMD Zen+ Core Design in 2018 for Mac. Much like how consoles are fabbing their own CPU / GPU design.
As I have always wondered why Apple introduced Metal API, may be they will unify PowerVR across their entire product range.
This will leave Intel with basically little to zero in Apple's revenue. Their Modem, should they manage to get into iPhone, are still Fab in TSMC.
Intels modem is bought in like Siri, and its quality is probably no better than when it was developed by Infinion. Its probable that Apple will develop its own modern, just like they eventually did with the iPhone (because Motorola couldn't live up to expectations). In that case Intel has nothing left to offer and that's a good thing because no one wants another stranglehold on the industry.
Intel is betting on 5G, or 4.5G / 4.9G. Or basically whatever that is coming after the current 4G ( Since 5G is not defined yet ) Having learned their lesson with Wi-Max they are partnering with many Telecom Equipment makers. And Since Infineon is the only company that doesn't need to pay heavy patent fees to Qualcomm, they are the only one who stand chance to beat / cost cut Qualcomm, that is assuming they have a decent enough chip. And it is highly unlikely Apple ever wanted to touch those Baseband Chip. They are extremely complicated, and requires a lot more testing with hundreds of different carriers and frequency bonding. Since lots of money are going into patents and not the actual cost of chip itself, Apple is happy buying it from 3rd party and let them handle the hard work.
( Note: On patents, in case you are wondering why no HEVC again in iPhone 7, it is highly likely Apple is extremely unhappy with the HEVC licensing system which is ridiculously over priced. )
10nm TSMC next year is an done deal. Given TSMC 7nm in 2018 is a improvement over 10nm, much like 20nm and 16nm, Apple will likely stick with TSMC in 2018 unless TSMC cant provide enough capacity for Apple, an highly unlikely scenario.
TSMC also mentioned a High performance node and Low Power node for 7nm. Since modern leading nodes are ALL mobile SoC, it is interesting they have make both node available at the same time. Which related back to a Rumor about Apple switching to AMD Zen+ Core Design in 2018 for Mac. Much like how consoles are fabbing their own CPU / GPU design.
As I have always wondered why Apple introduced Metal API, may be they will unify PowerVR across their entire product range.
This will leave Intel with basically little to zero in Apple's revenue. Their Modem, should they manage to get into iPhone, are still Fab in TSMC.
These feature sizes are not a given, particularly 7nm which will involve moving to materials other than silicon. Expect delays.
Features size are set. TSMC are not moving to different materials or EUV for 7nm, those are under consideration for 5nm. 10nm will tape out by the end of this year. Designing 7nm SoC takes nearly $300M, excluding the labor cost and time in the first initial run and learning curve, only a handful of company ( if not a few ) and afford this. Basically all leading node has always been designed and worked with their largest leading node customers, and with designing cost increasing ( 7nm cost 9 times more to tape out then 28nm ), these leading node customers has now shrink to literally Apple only.
10nm TSMC next year is an done deal. Given TSMC 7nm in 2018 is a improvement over 10nm, much like 20nm and 16nm, Apple will likely stick with TSMC in 2018 unless TSMC cant provide enough capacity for Apple, an highly unlikely scenario.
TSMC also mentioned a High performance node and Low Power node for 7nm. Since modern leading nodes are ALL mobile SoC, it is interesting they have make both node available at the same time. Which related back to a Rumor about Apple switching to AMD Zen+ Core Design in 2018 for Mac. Much like how consoles are fabbing their own CPU / GPU design.
As I have always wondered why Apple introduced Metal API, may be they will unify PowerVR across their entire product range.
This will leave Intel with basically little to zero in Apple's revenue. Their Modem, should they manage to get into iPhone, are still Fab in TSMC.
TSMC will likely win not just because of their advance processes very likely delivering 10nm late this year or early next, but also due their ability to stack dies and a high performance manner. Last I knew Intel has nothing happening here. IF, its a big if, TSMC stacked die process is as successful as it seems to be a the moment I see Apple having a hard time going with any manufacture that can't match that capability.
As for AMD & Apple rumors, I'd love to see Apple adopt at least a bit of AMD's hardware if for nothing else to put Intel under pricing pressure and maybe force Intel to reconsider the high prices it charges for Xeon processors used in the Mac Pro and even laptop processors.
Apple went with Metal for the same reason everybody else went with new high performance solutions. The OpenGL people where just too wrapped up in their creation to consider the things people really wanted or needed from modern GPU's.
I really like the idea of zero revenue for Intel long run. They have had a very negative impact not the processor market in the sense that competition was basically crushed for a long time. It is a very positive thing to see the success ARM is having, I'd love to see a high performance ARM based laptop from Apple but would take one from somebody else if it ran Linux. For ARM to really break out of the mobile arena they need a company the size of Apple to champion their hardware in non mobile devices. In the mean time ZEN based Macs might help persuade Intel to be a little more flexible with pricing of their hardware.
Actually Intel has TSV / Die stacking WAY before anyone else. It was announced with NTV ( Near-Threshold Voltage ), but Intel doesn't seems to plan for commercialization ( Likely Cost and Application concern )
This one can go either way. I believe that TSMC is ahead of Intel in fabrication technology at this point. However, Intel is able to offer a solution where the modem is integrated into the SoC.
The integrated modem may be important in a product like the watch and Apple may use Intel instead of Samsung to fab the S series of watch SoCs as a result. I see that one happening. However, the phone and the iPad have much larger power supplies and not nearly as power constrained as the watch. Separate modems in these devices are much less problematic. I don't see TSMC being displaced in these products.
How it plays out over the long term is anyone's guess. If Apple puts out a watch that can make calls independently of the phone and allows tethering of the iPad for data, such would be an ideal use situation for me and I would move from the iPhone to the watch. It should be straightforward and Apple could build an interface to allow the large battery in the iPad to feed power to the watch SoC when the devices are tethered for data, using the LTE modem in the SoC.
Such a scenario could lead to displacement of the iPhone for the watch and Intel could win big. However, if the iPhone remains dominant, TSMC will remain the dominant supplier of chips to Apple.
The watch seems to be the key. And if integrating the Intel modem into the S series SoC provides the better overall performance to power ratio to the combination of a separate Intel modem with a more advanced SoC from TSMC on a smaller node with InFO, Intel stands to benefit greatly. But if the TSMC chip is superior, Intel will have to rely on income from their modems primarily.
One thing is certain. Intel will have to up their game and start delivering based on Apple's schedule. Apple will not have to wait for Intel's ability to deliver the chips. Because TSMC and Samsung are more than happy to get Intel's business.
NO. TSMC is not ahead of INTEL. TSMC future 7nm tech is about the same As intels 14nm tech.
To quote that really interesting article in eetimes about TSMC fab road map... (From april 2016) BTW, use a browser without adblock, otherwise you will not beable to read it.
...Some observers were underwhelmed, claiming TSMC’s road map to 7nm will only bring it in line with the 14nm process in which Intel is currently ramping its Skylake CPUs....
Well its true TSMC is not ahead of Intel. But TSMC 7nm to Intel 14nm is just plain wrong. TSMC 7nm will likely be similar to Intel 10nm, with different trade off, i.e Some area Intel will be better and some TSMC will be better. But lets call TSMC 7nm and Intel 10nm equal. P.S - Because TSMC will only start to use Triple / Multiple Patterning in 7nm, when Intel has already mastered such technique in 14nm+ Kaby Lake production, and is moving to SADP or SAQP in 10nm. But that is ignoring other TSMC advantage such as SRAM density.
Comments
Its probable that Apple will develop its own modern, just like they eventually did with the iPhone (because Motorola couldn't live up to expectations). In that case Intel has nothing left to offer and that's a good thing because no one wants another stranglehold on the industry.
As for immigration there is nothing wrong with that if it is controlled. Sadly Obama has virtually removed all control to the detriment of the entire nation. This isn't rambling of somebody uneducated it is rather the reality that we live in right now, Obama has encouraged migration across the southern border, this is obvious to anybody that has even remotely followed what is happening in the south.
In any event I said nothing discriminatory against immigrants as people, I'm pretty clear about this, the problem is too many coming into the country and lowering the wage scale for everybody. By the way that isn't just people coming in from the south, thousands have been displaced from good paying jobs and replaced with H1B people. It is one thing to encourage immigration to grow the economy but in this case Obamas actions are acting to depress the economy. You really need to consider who is really uneducated here, Obamas policies have depressed wages across the spectrum from the local gardener to the IT organizations that have suffered due to the flood of immigrants.
In a nut shell immigration can be a good thing or a bad thing, it really depends upon the impact on the economy. In any event you can't rationally think that I'm against people that have recently come to this country. The people themselves are not a problem, and frankly I have no desire to discriminate against any particular person. it is rather the collective damage that excessive immigration is having right now that is the problem. Personally I think you need to work a little harder to understand what is going on here in the USA. The standard of living isn't what it use to be and frankly we need to turn that around before we become a third world country with most of the population in poverty.
TSMC will likely win not just because of their advance processes very likely delivering 10nm late this year or early next, but also due their ability to stack dies and a high performance manner. Last I knew Intel has nothing happening here. IF, its a big if, TSMC stacked die process is as successful as it seems to be a the moment I see Apple having a hard time going with any manufacture that can't match that capability.
As for AMD & Apple rumors, I'd love to see Apple adopt at least a bit of AMD's hardware if for nothing else to put Intel under pricing pressure and maybe force Intel to reconsider the high prices it charges for Xeon processors used in the Mac Pro and even laptop processors.
Apple went with Metal for the same reason everybody else went with new high performance solutions. The OpenGL people where just too wrapped up in their creation to consider the things people really wanted or needed from modern GPU's.
I really like the idea of zero revenue for Intel long run. They have had a very negative impact not the processor market in the sense that competition was basically crushed for a long time. It is a very positive thing to see the success ARM is having, I'd love to see a high performance ARM based laptop from Apple but would take one from somebody else if it ran Linux. For ARM to really break out of the mobile arena they need a company the size of Apple to champion their hardware in non mobile devices. In the mean time ZEN based Macs might help persuade Intel to be a little more flexible with pricing of their hardware.
NO. TSMC is not ahead of INTEL. TSMC future 7nm tech is about the same As intels 14nm tech.
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329217&page_number=1
To quote that really interesting article in eetimes about TSMC fab road map... (From april 2016) BTW, use a browser without adblock, otherwise you will not beable to read it.
...Some observers were underwhelmed, claiming TSMC’s road map to 7nm will only bring it in line with the 14nm process in which Intel is currently ramping its Skylake CPUs....
That's the same quandry Samsung is with Apple moving away from them.
Away from the bleeding edge, say 20nm right now, yeah it becomes commoditized.
Those process name are basically fact free.
Intel lost its huge edge, but its still ahead.
The problem is that their own chip business is possibly not enough in the future is not enough to sustain this lead.
They had no real competition at the top end, so they were doddling along for a decade.
(which it was in a time were people like Apple who wanted the latest process didn't exist outside X86).
Now, TSMC and Samsung are closing in and many people are moving to ARM for their computing needs
(not yet for the high end, but it could happen if Intel does nothing)
iMacs, MacBooks and MacPros, Apple Cars will all soon run on ARM so Intel can continue to make chips for them as TSMC could not meet the demands,,,
iMac will becomes like 27" iPad panel hooked on a stand.
Apple's new flash optimized APFS will work well on those machines as none of them will have hard disks.
( Note: On patents, in case you are wondering why no HEVC again in iPhone 7, it is highly likely Apple is extremely unhappy with the HEVC licensing system which is ridiculously over priced. )
Features size are set. TSMC are not moving to different materials or EUV for 7nm, those are under consideration for 5nm. 10nm will tape out by the end of this year. Designing 7nm SoC takes nearly $300M, excluding the labor cost and time in the first initial run and learning curve, only a handful of company ( if not a few ) and afford this. Basically all leading node has always been designed and worked with their largest leading node customers, and with designing cost increasing ( 7nm cost 9 times more to tape out then 28nm ), these leading node customers has now shrink to literally Apple only.
Actually Intel has TSV / Die stacking WAY before anyone else. It was announced with NTV ( Near-Threshold Voltage ), but Intel doesn't seems to plan for commercialization ( Likely Cost and Application concern )
Well its true TSMC is not ahead of Intel. But TSMC 7nm to Intel 14nm is just plain wrong. TSMC 7nm will likely be similar to Intel 10nm, with different trade off, i.e Some area Intel will be better and some TSMC will be better. But lets call TSMC 7nm and Intel 10nm equal.
P.S - Because TSMC will only start to use Triple / Multiple Patterning in 7nm, when Intel has already mastered such technique in 14nm+ Kaby Lake production, and is moving to SADP or SAQP in 10nm. But that is ignoring other TSMC advantage such as SRAM density.