Cortex-A57?
– 3x performance of 2012 superphones
– 64-bit support for future consumer apps + current and future enterprise apps
– Scalable beyond 16 cores…
First Cortex-A50 series chips available from 2014
Update: TSMC 16nm FinFET to enter mass production within one year after 20nm ramp-up, says Chang [DIGITIMES, April 18, 2013]
TSMC’s 16nm FinFET process will enter mass production in less than one year after ramping up production of 20nm chips, company chairman and CEO Morris Chang said at an investors meeting today (April 18).
Chang indicated that TSMC already moved its 20nm process to risk production in the first quarter of 2013. As for 16nm FinFET, the node will be ready for risk production by the year-end, Chang said.
While stepping up efforts to bring newer nodes online, TSMC has revised upward its 2013 capex to US$9.5-10 billion. The foundry previously set capex for the year at US$9 billion.
In addition, Chang reiterated his previous remark that production of TSMC’s 28nm wafers and revenues generated from the process in 2013 will triple those of 2012. The node technology will continue to play the major driver of TSMC’s revenue growth in 2013, said Chang, adding that the foundry’s share of the 28nm foundry market will remain high this year.
Nandan Nayampally highlights the ARM® Cortex™-A57 processor [ARMflix YouTube channel, Oct 30, 2012]
Introductory information: ARM information page [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Feb 5, 2013]
TSMC?
TSMC reports big Q4 net profit jump [Formosa EnglishNews YouTube channel, Jan 18, 2013]
Morris Chang with Jen-Hsun Huang [ComputerHistory YouTube channel, Nov 15, 2007]
Important note: The video was recorded in 2007, so an important addition has to be given in a preceding note from Morris Chang Wikipedia article:
… In 2005, he handed TSMC’s CEO position to Rick Tsai.
As of June 2009, Chang has returned to the position of TSMC‘s CEO once again [because things were not going well]. …
The essence of TSMC’s contract chip manufacturing operation, as it stands now, can be summarized by this diagram (more information around that is in the excepts included towards the end of this post from TSMC’s Annual Report released on April 2, 2013):
And here is another essential introductory information about TSMC:
TSMC OIP [Open Innovation Platform] 2012 – Sit down with Suk Lee, TSMC [chipestimate YouTube channel, Oct 26, 2012]
Investing in FinFET Technology Leadership Presented by ARM [ARMflix YouTube channel, Nov 12, 2012]
Background information:
– The future of the semiconductor IP ecosystem [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Dec 13, 2012]
– ARM information page [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Feb 5, 2013]
Next-generation Solutions: One Size does not Fit All by Nandan Nayampally, Director of Apps Processor Products, Processor Division, ARM [ARMflix YouTube channel, Jan 3, 2013]
ARM TechCon 2012 – Simon Segars Keynote launching the Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 processors [ARMflix YouTube channel, Oct 30, 2012]
Background information:
– ARM information page [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Feb 5, 2013]
– Cortex-A57 Processor [ARM microsite, Oct 30, 2012]
– ARM Cortex-A57 – So Big is Relative but How Relative is Your Big? [SoC Design blog of ARM, Oct 30, 2012]
– ARM TechCon 2012 Day 1 – Cortex-A50 Launch, Panel Discussion and Busy Sessions [ARM Events blog, Oct 31, 2012]
– big.LITTLE in 64-bit [SoC Design blog of ARM, Nov 1, 2012]
– Cortex-A57 – Connected Community – ARM [ARM community page, Nov 12, 2012]
Finally here is the press release describing the news summarized by me in the headline of this post as “With 28nm non-exclusive in 2013 TSMC tested first tape-out of an ARM Cortex™-A57 processor on 16nm FinFET process technology”:
ARM and TSMC Tape Out First ARM Cortex-A57 Processor [joint press release, April 2, 2013]
Hsinchu, Taiwan and Cambridge, UK – April 2, 2013 – ARM and TSMC (TWSE: 2330, NYSE: TSM) today announced the first tape-out of an ARM® Cortex™-A57 processor on FinFET process technology. The Cortex-A57 processor is ARM’s highest performing processor, designed to further extend the capabilities of future mobile and enterprise computing, including compute intensive applications such as high-end computer, tablet and server products. This is the first milestone in the collaboration between ARM and TSMC to jointly optimize the 64-bit ARMv8 processor series on TSMC FinFET process technologies. The two companies cooperated in the implementation from RTL to tape-out in six months using ARM Artisan® physical IP, TSMC memory macros, and EDA technologies enabled by TSMC’s Open Innovation Platform® (OIP) design ecosystem.
ARM and TSMC’s collaboration produces optimized, power-efficient Cortex-A57 processors and libraries to support early customer implementations on 16nm FinFET for high-performance, ARM technology-based SoCs.
“This first ARM Cortex-A57 processor implementation paves the way for our mutual customers to leverage the performance and power efficiency of 16nm FinFET technology,” said Tom Cronk, executive vice president and general manager, Processor Division, ARM. “The joint effort of ARM, TSMC, and TSMC’s OIP design ecosystem partners demonstrates the strong commitment to provide industry-leading technology for customer designs to benefit from our latest 64-bit ARMv8 architecture, big.LITTLE™ processing and ARM POP™ IP across a wide variety of market segments.”
“Our multi-year, multi-node collaboration with ARM continues to deliver advanced technologies to enable market-leading SoCs across mobile, server, and enterprise infrastructure applications,” said Dr. Cliff Hou, TSMC Vice President of R&D. “This achievement demonstrates that the next-generation ARMv8 processor is FinFET-ready for TSMC’s advanced technology.”
This announcement highlights the enhanced and intensified collaboration between ARM and TSMC. The test chip was implemented using a commercially available 16nm FinFET tool chain and design services provided by the OIP ecosystem and ARM Connected Community partners. This successful collaborative milestone is confirmation of the roles that TSMC’s OIP and ARM’s Connected Community play in promoting innovation for the semiconductor design industry.
About ARM
ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products, from wireless, networking and consumer entertainment solutions to imaging, automotive, security and storage devices. ARM’s comprehensive product offering includes RISC microprocessors, graphics processors, video engines, enabling software, cell libraries, embedded memories, high-speed connectivity products, peripherals and development tools. Combined with comprehensive design services, training, support and maintenance, and the company’s broad Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies. Find out more about ARM by following these links:
• ARM website: http://www.arm.com/
• ARM Connected Community: http://www.arm.com/community/
• ARM Blogs: http://blogs.arm.com/
• ARMFlix on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ARMflix
ARM on Twitter:
• http://twitter.com/ARMMobile
• http://twitter.com/ARMCommunity
• http://twitter.com/ARMEmbedded
• http://twitter.com/ARMLowPwr
• http://twitter.com/KeilTools
• http://twitter.com/ARMMultimedia
About TSMC
TSMC is the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry’s leading process technology and the foundry’s largest portfolio of process-proven libraries, IPs, design tools and reference flows. The Company’s managed capacity in 2012 totaled 15.1 million (8-inch equivalent) wafers, including capacity from three advanced 12-inch GIGAFAB™ facilities, four eight-inch fabs, one six-inch fab, as well as TSMC’s wholly owned subsidiaries, WaferTech and TSMC China, and its joint venture fab, SSMC. TSMC is the first foundry to provide 28nm production capabilities. TSMC’s corporate headquarters are in Hsinchu, Taiwan. For more information about TSMC please visit http://www.tsmc.com.
# # #
Form 20-F Filings with U.S. SEC (4/2/2013) for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC 台積公司) [TSMC, April 2, 2013]
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2012
…
… Over the years, our customer profile and the nature of our customers’ business have changed dramatically. While we generate revenue from hundreds of customers worldwide, our ten largest customers accounted for approximately 54%, 56% and 59% of our net sales in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively. Our largest customer accounted for 9%, 14% and 17% of our net sales in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively. …
… We believe we are currently the world’s largest dedicated foundry in the semiconductor industry. We were founded in 1987 as a joint venture among the R.O.C. government and other private investors and were incorporated in the R.O.C. on February 21, 1987. …
…
As a foundry, we manufacture semiconductors using our manufacturing processes for our customers based on their own or third parties’ proprietary integrated circuit designs. We offer a comprehensive range of wafer fabrication processes, including processes to manufacture CMOS logic, mixed-signal, radio frequency, embedded memory, BiCMOS mixed-signal and other semiconductors. We estimate that our revenue market segment share among total foundries worldwide was 45% in 2012. We also offer design, mask making, bumping, probing, assembly and testing services.
We believe that our large capacity, particularly for advanced technologies, is a major competitive advantage. Please see “— Manufacturing Capacity and Technology” and “— Capacity Management and Technology Upgrade Plans” for a further discussion of ourcapacity.
We count among our customers many of the world’s leading semiconductor companies, ranging from fabless semiconductor and system companies such as Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Altera Corporation, Broadcom Corporation, Marvell Semiconductor Inc., MediaTek Inc., NVIDIA Corporation, OmniVision Technologies and Qualcomm Incorporated, to integrated device manufacturers such as LSI Corporation, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments Inc. Fabless semiconductor and system companies accounted for approximately 85%, and integrated device manufacturers accounted for approximately 15% of our net sales in 2012.
…
We manufacture semiconductors on silicon wafers based on proprietary circuitry designs provided by our customers or third party designers. Two key factors that characterize a foundry’s manufacturing capabilities are output capacity and fabrication process technologies. Since our establishment, we have possessed the largest capacity among the world’s dedicated foundries. We also believe that we are the technology leader among the dedicated foundries in terms of our net sales of advanced semiconductors with a resolution of 65-nanometer and below, and are one of the leaders in the semiconductor manufacturing industry generally. We are the first semiconductor foundry with proven low-k interconnect technology in commercial production from the 0.13 micron node down to 28-nanometer node. Following our commercial production based on 65-nanometer process technology in 2006, we also unveiled 55-nanometer process technology in 2007. Our 65-nanometer and 55-nanometer technologies are the third-generation proprietary processes that employ low-k dielectrics. In 2008, we also qualified our 45-nanometer and 40-nanometer process technologies with ultra low-k dielectrics and advanced immersion lithography. In the fourth quarter of 2011, we have begun volume production of 28-nanometer products with first-generation high-k/metal gate transistor. In 2012, we continued 20-nanometer technology development to provide migration path from 28-nanometer for both performance driven products and mobile computing applications.
…
Our capital expenditures in 2010, 2011 and 2012 were NT$186,944 million, NT$213,963 million and NT$246,137 million (US$8,322 million, translated from a weighted average exchange rate of NT$29.577 to US$1.00), respectively. Our capital expenditures in 2013 are expected to be approximately US$9 billion, which, depending on market conditions, may be adjusted later. Prior to 2012, our capital expenditures were funded by our operating cash flow. Starting 2012, our capital expenditures were partially funded by the issuance of corporate bonds. The capital expenditures for 2013 are also expected to be funded in similar ways as in 2012. In 2013, we anticipate our capital expenditures to focus primarily on the following:
- adding production capacity to our 300mm wafer fabs;
- developing new process technologies in 20-nanometer, and 16-nanometer nodes;
- expanding buildings/facilities for Fab 12, Fab 14 and Fab 15;
- other research and development projects;
- capacity expansion for mask and backend operations; and
- solar and solid state lighting businesses.
…
… We plan to continue to invest significant amounts on research and development in 2013, with the goal of maintaining a leading position in the development of advanced process technologies. Our research and development efforts have allowed us to provide our customers access to certain advanced process technologies, such as 65-nanometer, 55-nanometer, 45-nanometer, 40-nanometer and 28-nanometer technology for volume production, prior to the implementation of those advanced process technologies by many integrated device manufacturers and our competitors. In addition, we expect to advance our process technologies further down to 20/16-nanometer and below in the coming years to maintain our technology leadership. We will also continue to invest in research and development for our mainstream technologies offerings to provide function-rich process capabilities to our customers.
…
We manufacture a variety of semiconductors based on designs provided by our customers. Our business model is commonly called a “dedicated semiconductor foundry.” The foundry segment of the semiconductor industry as a whole experienced rapid growth over the last 26 years since our inception. As the leader of the foundry segment of the semiconductor industry, our net sales and net income were NT$419,538 million and NT$161,605 million in 2010, NT$427,081 million and NT$134,201 million in 2011, and NT$506,249 million (US$17,427 million) and NT$166,159 million (US$5,720 million) in 2012, respectively. The sales in 2011 increased slightly by 1.8% from 2010, mainly due to growth in customer demand and more favorable product mix, partially offset by the effect of U.S. dollar depreciation. Our sales in 2012 increased by 18.5% from 2011, mainly due to continuous growth in customer demand and increase in sales of our 28-nanometer products, which commanded a higher selling price.
…
Technology Migration.
Our operations utilize a variety of process technologies, ranging from mainstream process technologies of 0.5 micron or above circuit resolutions to advanced process technologies of 28-nanometer circuit resolutions. The table below presents a breakdown of wafer sales by circuit resolution during the last three years:
Percentage of total wafer revenue (1) for the year ended December 31
Resolution
2010
2011
2012
28-nanometer
–
1%
12%
40/45-nanometer
17%
26%
27%
65-nanometer
29%
29%
23%
90-nanometer
14%
9%
9%
0.11/0.13 micron
12%
8%
6%
0.15 micron
4%
6%
4%
0.18 micron
13%
12%
11%
0.25 micron
4%
4%
4%
0.35 micron
4%
3%
2%
≥0.5 micron
3%
2%
2%
Total
100%
100%
100%
(1) Percentages represent wafer revenue by technology as a percentage of total revenue from wafer sales, which exclude revenue associated with design, mask making, probing, and testing and assembly services. Total wafer revenue excludes sales returns and allowances.
…
Our gross margin fluctuates with the level of capacity utilization, price change and product mix, among other factors. In 2012, our gross margin increased to 48.1% of net sales from 45.4% of net sales in 2011. The higher margin in 2012 was primarily due to higher capacity utilization and cost reductions, which contributed favorably to our gross margin by 5.5 and 2.8 percentage points, respectively, partially offset by price decline and higher portion of wafer sales in 28-nanometer technology bearing lower than corporate average margins at initial production stage, which negatively impacted our gross margin by 5.3 percentage points.
…
… Research and development expenditures increased by NT$6,572 million in 2012, or 19.4%, from 2011, mainly due to a higher level of research activities for 20-nanometer technologies and higher employee profit sharing expenses and bonus. In 2011, research and development expenditures increased by NT$4,123 million, or 13.9%, from 2010, mainly due to higher spending in developing 20-nanometer technology, partially offset by lower employee profit sharing expenses and bonus. We plan to continue to invest significant amounts in research and development in 2013.
…
Capital expenditures in 2012 were primarily related to:
- adding production capacity to 300mm wafer fabs;
- developing process technologies including 20-nanometer node and below;
- expanding buildings/facilities for Fab 12, Fab 14 and Fab 15;
- other research and development projects;
- capacity expansion for mask and backend operations; and
- solar and solid state lighting businesses
…
Employees
The following table sets out, as of the dates indicated, the number of our full-time employees serving in the capacities indicated.
As of December 31
Function
2010
2011(1)
2012(1)
Managers
3,142
3,601
3,865
Professionals
12,729
13,665
15,844
Assistant Engineers/Clericals
2,650
2,796
3,079
Technicians
14,711
15,395
16,479
Total
33,232
35,457
39,267
The following table sets out, as of the dates indicated, a breakdown of the number of our full-time employees by geographic location:
Location of Facility and Principal Offices as of December 31
2010
2011(1)
2012(1)
Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan
20,703
20,107
21,534
Southern Taiwan Science Park, Taiwan
9,158
9,041
8,964
Central Taiwan Science Park, Taiwan
29
1,410
3,558
Taoyuan County, Taiwan
–
1,333
1,378
China
1,903
2,134
2,353
North America
1,355
1,343
1,395
Europe
48
53
50
Japan
32
32
32
Korea
4
4
3
Total
33,232
35,457
39,267
(1) Including employees of our non-wholly owned subsidiaries, Xintec Inc. and Mutual-Pak Technology Co., Ltd., since 2011.
As of December 31, 2012, our total employee population was 39,267 with an educational makeup of 3.6% Ph.Ds, 34.4% masters, 25.9% university bachelors, 12.8% college degrees and 23.3% others. Among this employee population, 50.2% were at a managerial or professional level. …
…
Major Shareholders
The following table sets forth certain information as of February 28, 2013, with respect to our common shares owned by (i) each person who, according to our records, beneficially owned five percent or more of our common shares and by (ii) all directors and executive officers as a group.
Names of Shareholders
Number of Common Shares Owned
Percentage of Total Outstanding Common Shares
National Development Fund
1,653,709,980
6.38%
Capital World Investors
1,488,857,477
5.74%
Directors and executive officers as a group
291,940,745
1.13%
Experiencing the Cloud 
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