TSMC announces N4X process tech, will be used for next-gen HPC chips

TSMC has just announced its N4X process technology, which has been tailor-made for the demanding workloads of high-performance computing (HPC) products.

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The new N4X process technology is the first of TSMC's HPC-focused technology offerings, which the company says "representing ultimate performance and maximum clock frequencies in the 5-nanometer family. The "X" designation is reserved for TSMC technologies that are developed specifically for HPC products".

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) enhanced its already impressive technology with features made for HPC products to create N4X, these features include:

• Device design and structures optimized for high drive current and maximum frequency
• Back-end metal stack optimization for high-performance designs
• Super high density metal-insulator-metal capacitors for robust power delivery under extreme performance loads

Dr. Kevin Zhang, senior vice president of Business Development at TSMC explains: "HPC is now TSMC's fastest-growing business segment and we are proud to introduce N4X, the first in the 'X' lineage of our extreme performance semiconductor technologies. The demands of the HPC segment are unrelenting, and TSMC has not only tailored our 'X' semiconductor technologies to unleash ultimate performance but has also combined it with our 3DFabric™ advanced packaging technologies to offer the best HPC platform".

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TSMC says that these new HPC features will enable N4X to have performance increases of 15% over N5, and up to 4% over the faster N4P at 1.2 volt. N4X can achieve drive voltages beyond 1.2 volt and have even more performance, with the company expecting N4X to enter risk production in 2H 2023.