Next year TSMC will start manufacturing the first 20nm chips

The Taiwanese company TSMC confirmed its intention to start production of chips using 20 nm technological processes in 2013. However, for now the company does not plan its production on an industrial scale and will release the first chips in a limited quantities, giving them a total of 1% of production capacity. According to the head of the company, the mass production of semiconductor chips with this technology will not begin until 2014.

Meanwhile TSMC Company is going to produce only one version of the chip, which will be able to enter into the wide range of devices, from smart phones with low-power to high-performance graphics cards. For comparison, the Taiwanese company currently has four different output chips on 28-nm technology. These are 28LP (poly / SiON) for low-power low-cost chips, 28HPL (HKMG) for use in low power applications, 28HP (HKMG) for high-performance chips and 28HPM (HKMG). The latest version combines elements of high-performance chips with high efficiency and is designed to produce processors that are part of today's tablets, smart phones and laptops.

TSMC plans are not limited to the year 2014, and the company is already looking into more distant future. In 2015, it is planned to release the first prototypes of chips on 16 nm process technology with transistors and vertically positioned gate (FinFET).