TSMC expects to post revenues of between US$12.4 billion and US$12.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, which is a 3.4% sequential increase at the midpoint. Gross margin and operating margin for the third quarter are estimated at 51.5-53.5% and 40.5-42.5%, respectively.

TSMC also raised its global semiconductor market outlook this year to 4-6% growth, while revising its foundry market growth forecast to nearly 20% from the previously estimated 14-19%. TSMC expects to post a 30% revenue surge in US dollar term this year.

TSMC's net profits grew 35.9% on year and 13.6% sequentially to NT$137.31 billion (US$4.78 billion) in the third quarter of 2020. EPS for the quarter came to NT$5.30, or US$0.90 per ADR unit.

As predicted, US manufacturers also want free money

The Decadal Plan, developed with contributions from a broad cross-section of leaders in academia, government, and industry, identifies five “seismic shifts” shaping the future of chip technology and calls for an annual $3.4 billion federal investment over the next decade to fund semiconductor R&D across these five areas.

“Federal government and private sector investments in semiconductor R&D have propelled the rapid pace of innovation in the U.S. semiconductor industry, spurring tremendous growth throughout the U.S. and global economies,” said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. “As we enter a new era, however, a renewed focus on public-private research partnerships is necessary to address the seismic shifts facing chip technology. The federal government must invest ambitiously in semiconductor research to keep America on top in semiconductors and the game-changing future technologies they enable.”

The Decadal Plan’s proposed additional federal investment of $3.4 billion annually would strengthen the U.S. semiconductor industry’s global leadership position, add $161 billion to U.S. GDP, and create half a million U.S. jobs in the next 10 years, according to findings from an earlier SIA study.

And ti is very small early start, very soon they will start asking for $100 billions.

Liquid metal solutions as sign of issues

ASUS notebooks

Playstation 5

How 600w processor will look like

Fewer players due to rising costs of development of LSI's

Toshiba has announced it will dissolve its system LSI business, with the move to affect about 770 employees.

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage (TDSC), which operates Toshiba's system LSI business, indicated it will concentrate resources on analog ICs and microcontroller units for motor control, and continue to direct product development resources to the area. In the advanced system-on-a-chip business, TDSC will end new product development but will continue to support existing customers.

TSMC is on track to enter 3nm chip production with monthly output set to reach 55,000 wafers in the second half of 2022, according to sources familiar with the matter. The 3nm process output will climb further to 100,000 units in 2023.

Number of various paper promises from TSMC rises exponentially, something is not right.

We can clearly see something is bad with 7nm+ EUV process, not enough capacity even for original 7nm and tiny capacity for 5nm so even Apple had been forced to make 2-3x less CPUs despite banning Huawei and all other clients.

Sony and Microsoft’s new-generation game consoles are expected to be out of stock until mid-2021. In second half availability will slowly improve.

The quantity of ordered wafers is as high as 102,000, and the recent yield rate is estimated to reach 58%, and TSMC wants to it improve significantly after the fourth quarter.

As chip makers have reached the limits of atomic-scale circuitry and the physics of electrons, Moore’s law has slowed, and some say it’s over. But a different law, potentially no less consequential for computing’s next half century, has arisen.

I call it Huang’s Law, after Nvidia Corp. chief executive and co-founder Jensen Huang. It describes how the silicon chips that power artificial intelligence more than double in performance every two years. While the increase can be attributed to both hardware and software, its steady progress makes it a unique enabler of everything from autonomous cars, trucks and ships to the face, voice and object recognition in our personal gadgets.

Between November 2012 and this May, performance of Nvidia’s chips increased 317 times for an important class of AI calculations, says Bill Dally, chief scientist and senior vice president of research at Nvidia. On average, in other words, the performance of these chips more than doubled every year, a rate of progress that makes Moore’s Law pale in comparison.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/huangs-law-is-the-new-moores-law-and-explains-why-nvidia-wants-arm-11600488001

Tragedy is that energy per each performance unit is no longer dropping much.

Quite weird table if do not know that it is

From https://cset.georgetown.edu/research/ai-chips-what-they-are-and-why-they-matter/

It is actually about some abstract big AI chips (610 mm2, 90.7 billion transistors at 148.2 MTr/mm2), but about real CPUs or GPUs that changes with process.

And all numbers are estimates, as making real numbers public could shock the public, so it won't be allowed no matter that.

TSMC sells a 300mm wafer processed using its N5 technology for about $16,988. By contrast, the world’s largest contract maker of semiconductors charges around $9,346 per 300mm wafer patterned using its N7 node as well as $3,984 for a 300mm wafer fabbed using its 16nm or 12nm technology.

If this personal attacks are true, it will be beyond repair indeed.

What strikes me is the relaxed position of USA fucking up china In the licensees but having china make them all it’s high tech stuff.

Let’s wait and see the complexes problems this party’s will have sooner than later

I feel it will be historic news.

Something bad is happening with TSMC last months

Sony Corp. has cut its estimated PlayStation 5 production for this fiscal year by 4 million units, down to around 11 million, following production issues with its custom-designed system-on-chip for the new console.

Company has come up against manufacturing issues, such as production yields as low as 50% for its SOC, which have cut into its ability to produce as many consoles as it wishes, said the people, who asked to remain anonymous because the deliberations aren’t public. Yields have been gradually improving but have yet to reach a stable level, they added.

Rumor is that Sony placed bet on so called 7nm+ process with EUV usage and this is reason of all issues.

As TSMC cancelled its usage in all AMD chiplets adn all other major orders and now reason is clear.

All new Apple smartphones will start to use heatpipes

Due to problems with lowering thermal performance while going to 5nm and further to 3nm (despite TSMC and Samsung claims) Apple will be forced to significantly update thermal performance of their designs.

Two solutions are expected - use of metal in the rear casing and use up to 3 heatpipes to spread the abnormal heat from central processor LSI.

Non throttling performance can drop to mere 3-4 minutes for 2021 flagmans, causing LSI to drop performance by 40-50%.