AMD has a long history of collaboration with TSMC in the development of their Ryzen CPUs, and it looks like they will get all the benefits of this long collaboration with their upcoming 5nm Zen 4-based CPUs.
AMD Zen 4 would use TSMC’s improved 5 nm node
AMD is expected to launch Zen 4-based Ryzen and EPYC CPUs in 2021, and reports from ChinaNews (Via PC Gamer) suggest that Zen 4 may receive the most advanced and improved version of the 5nm TSMC node.
TSMC has reportedly developed what they call an improved 5nm process node. Previously, it was reported that in addition to Apple, Huawei could have been a potential customer, but yesterday’s report revealed that Huawei is now using SMIC rather than TSMC for its next chips.
The advanced 5nm version means that TSMC would have an advantage over competing 5nm nodes and both Apple and AMD would be the largest customers for TSMC’s 5nm process node. As stated in the article, Apple has asked TSMC to create up to 10,000 units of production capacity by the 4th quarter of 2020, while AMD’s capacity needs are no less than 20,000 12-inch wafers per month. This shows that there is a healthy demand for wafer chips at TSMC, and we can expect production to start early to mid 2021.
Although the Zen 3-based CPUs Ryzen 4000 and EPYC Milan would use the 7 nm node, the improved 5 nm node would be ready for use with the new generation of Ryzen 5000 and EPYC processors.
The improved N5P node would offer 7% more efficiency and 15% less consumption for the same power output compared to the “normal” 5 nm.