TSMC, ARM aim 7nm at data centers
To date, mobile application processors such as Apple’s A series, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and Samsung’s Exynos have been among the first SoCs to use new process technologies. Tape outs of mobile chips using 64-bit ARM cores were among the early milestones for 16 and 10nm nodes.
Amid a slowdown in handset growth, the winds appear to be shifting. In a statement released March 15, the two announced “a multi-year agreement to collaborate on a 7nm FinFET process…The new agreement expands the companies’ long-standing partnership and advances leading-edge process technologies beyond mobile and into next-generation networks and data centers.”
Specifically, ARM said it is preparing a generation of “future ARM technology designed specifically for data centers and network infrastructure and optimized for TSMC 7nm FinFET,” according to a quote in the release from Pete Hutton, president of ARM’s product group.
To date, ARM’s leading edge cores have served a broad array of applications from high-end handset to server SoCs. Late last year, ARM alluded to work on cores for servers and networking and announced libraries specifically for high-performance computing.
ARM and TSMC will use the 7nm collaboration to go beyond past work on test chips to prove a node’s readiness. “To better enable our customers design and tape-out optimized SoCs for data centers and network infrastructure, we need to also address design challenges that our mutual customers may be facing,” so the duo will hammer out a “design solution [that] is a silicon proof point to demonstrate realistic data center workloads,” a spokesman said.
Last year, TSMC said it expects to start making 7nm chips in 2017. That’s about the time ARM’s initiative to enable server SoCs should start bearing real fruit, said Handel Jones, principal of consulting firm International Business Strategies (Los Gatos, Calif.).
“ARM is very active in trying to get into data centers and 7 nm will be a key technology node for many of these activities…High production volumes are possible in 2019 and 2020,” Jones said.
“The server and data center market has strong growth potential in the next few years…[and] customers want an alternative” to Intel’s relatively high prices, Jones added, noting Qualcomm and others have announced plans for ARM-based server SoCs.
To date, several companies have announced ARM-based server SoCs, but none have gotten significant traction.
In the press statement, TSMC’s vice president of R&D, Cliff Hou, said the 7nm FinFET, process “will deliver more performance improvement at the same power or lower power at the same performance as compared to our 10nm FinFET process node.”
The TSMC/ARM agreement extends previous collaborations on 16nm and 10nm FinFET nodes that included ARM’s Artisan physical IP blocks. Previously, the two companies taped out test chips using ARM Cortex-A72 cores in early runs of 16nm and 10nm FinFET nodes.
— Rick Merritt, Silicon Valley Bureau Chief, EE Times
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