The Asian website Nikkei revealed that TSMC is working closely with AMD, Google, and other major companies to develop a new way to make processors more powerful. This would be made possible by 3D packaging (3D stacking), or 3D stacking for short, in which the components of a chip can be stacked both vertically and horizontally.
This would enable the production that would be much more powerful, smaller, and energy-efficient chips since the processor, memory, sensors, and other components could be contained in the same silicon. This was called SolC.
TSMC plans to introduce its new 3D packaging technology in a plant which it is building in the Taiwanese city of Miaoli. The construction of this new foundry is scheduled to begin mass production in 2022. This means that so-called Zen 5-based CPUs could incorporate this new technology, which could dramatically increase the total number of cores.
After NVIDIA and Broadcom left TSMC in search of other specialized packaging companies such as ASE Technology Holding, Amkor, and Powertech, the Taiwanese company would redouble its efforts to keep other large companies like Apple, Google, and Huawei in its ranks.
“TSMC, of course, is not trying to replace all the traditional chip packaging providers, but it aims to serve these premium customers at the top of the pyramid so that these big chip developers like Apple, Google, AMD, and Nvidia don’t leave TSMC for their competitors,” said an anonymous source familiar with the issue.