In the fourth quarter, Apple's 10-nanometer A11 Bionic application processor delivered heavy volume and pushed TSMC's consolidated revenue in October to hit a high of 94.52 billion yuan and hit a record high for a single-month revenue. However, according to the device industry, TSMC and Apple co-operate The new generation of A11X Bionic application processors, which have finalized the chip design, are expected to be mass-produced in a 7nm process next year and will be available in the 2018 version of the iPad Pro.
Compared with the 6-core architecture of the Apple A11 application processor, the A11X application processor uses an 8-core architecture design, including the 3-core Monsoon core and the 5-core Mistral core for low-power computing. The M11 also includes an M11 coprocessor Core and the core of Neural Engine for artificial intelligence to create the core, using a new generation of InFO WLP packaging process.Industry who pointed out that A11X will be Apple's first 7-nanometer process chip production, is also expected to be the first production of TSMC 7 Nanochip.
From the development of A series of processors in recent years, there has been clear process technology miniaturization and architecture upgrade from the beginning of last year.Apple's 4-core A10 Fusion processor in 2016 adopts 16 nanometers, but the A10X Fusion processor upgrade the process to 10 nanometers, the core architecture is optimized to 6. Because of the A10X training in the advanced process first, so the second half of this year launched the 6-core A11 Bionic processor in the 10-nanometer Pull up faster.
From this point of view, early next year launched the A11X Bionic processor, the process will be upgraded to 7 nm, the core architecture is optimized for 8. If Apple can smoothly finish the learning curve of 7-nanometer process, the second half of 2018 launched A12 The processor is expected to be the fastest speed of production of 7-nanometer production in this context, the Apple A12X processor will be cast in early 2019, will be the first ultra-violet (EUV) 7 + nano-chip process .
For TSMC, due to 10nm and 7nm device sharing rate as high as 90% of this year's 10-nanometer process from the completion of R & D to mass production of the promotion of the project was very smooth, mass production for early next year to lay a good foundation of 7nm, so next year No. 1 Season 7 Nano will be on schedule as the amount of high-volume, the end of the second quarter is expected to start Note revenue and TSMC 7-nanometer orders much better than 10 nanometers, many 16-nanometer customers have skipped 10-nanometer generation, direct use of 7 nanometers With the 7-nanometer production capacity, TSMC's revenue is expected to hit a new high next year.