Today TSMC announced another N5-based manufacturing process. This will be launched after N3 in 2023 and then represent something like the cheaper but still very modern variant in the portfolio – similar to the current N6 to N5.
Keeping track of TSMC's portfolio doesn't get any easier. After all, every big step in production is followed by at least one more, but recently often even a third or even fourth. From TSMC's original N5 production there is the offshoot N5P and N5HPC, but actually N4 is also an offshoot of N5, whereby the picture here is becoming increasingly blurred. N4P will definitely be the next evolutionary stage in this N4/N5 generation, which offers even more small advantages over the original.
TSMC wants to provide another 6 percent more performance than the N4 process for N4P, which adds up to eleven percent more performance than the N5 process. The alternative to N5 is a 22 percent increase in energy efficiency, plus six percent improvements in transistor density. The whole thing is garnished with what is probably the most important: Less complexity in production and a lower number of masks, which ultimately means fewer exposure steps. In the end, it will be a cost-effective process that is just below the best process, but should be providing more than enough performance for many customers at this time. Almost all development tools remain the same as with N5, in a year the first tape-outs could take place
TSMC is killing several birds with one stone. They are building new factories for their latest processes; the capacity is nowhere near enough to be able to offer this process to every customer. However, the existing factories are being optimized accordingly to the constantly improved processes in the second row, so that very good products can still be manufactured here. And this is how TSMC describes it itself:
Between all the variants of N5, N4 and N3 technologies , our customers will have the ultimate flexibility and unmatched choice of the best mix of attributes for their products.
TSMC