Trying to cover the waterfront, TSMC disclosed plans for new high-, mid- and low-end processes at an annual event here. They included an enhanced 7nm FinFET node using extreme ultraviolet lithography, a 12nm upgrade of its 16nm process and a 22nm planar technology - its answer to fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI).

As Linley Gwennap, the head of the eponymous research firm Linley Group, sees it, the "16nm" technology of TSMC and the others "is really 19nm," and the planned 7nm "will be about 13nm relative to Intel processes." Intel, he concludes, is a "a full node" ahead of the foundries, "Just as they have been for the past decade."

On a positive note for TSMC, it looks like the company is gearing up for production in May of the "A10" processor for Apple's next flagship phone, presumably an "iPhone 7."

Intel and TSMC have both started trial production for LG's own processor called Nuclun 2 using different methods.

Following the launch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus last month, it was discovered that Apple is dual sourcing the A9 chip for the new devices from both TSMC and Samsung, with the chips from the two companies measuring at slightly different sizes due to different processes used in manufacturing the chips.

AMD has allegedly decided to delegate the responsibility of producing its hotly anticipated Zen CPU chips to TSMC on its 16nm FinFET process. This development has allegedly unfolded amidst AMD fears of Globalfoundries' slow 14nm FinFET yield and capacity progress.

NVIDIA reiterates for the second time in three months that TSMC is their primary manufacturing partner as they head towards 16nm, and even 10nm production.

eMemory Technology's One-Time Programmable (OTP) NeoFuse technology has been successfully verified in 16nm FinFET process, with full silicon IP development and customer application deployment expected to be completed by the end of 2015.

The company will begin volume production of its 16nm FinFET Plus (16FF+) in the middle of 2015 and break ground on a new 10nm fab next year.

The 930 is a huge leap forward in a very short timeframe.

TSMC will snatch more orders for Apple's A9 processor at the expense of Samsung, which is having yield problems with its most advanced technology node, according to sources interviewed by EE Times.

Global Unichip and Credo Semiconductor have announced they are collaborating to enable the development of high-performance networking solutions that will be manufactured using TSMC's 16-nm FinFET+ process technology.

TSMC has pulled in plans for initial production of its 16nm FinFET process to the end of 2013. In addition, it hopes to adopt extreme ultraviolet lithography to make 10nm chips starting in late 2015 but is still researching e-beam as an alternative.

Cadence Design Systems has announced an ongoing multi-year agreement with TSMC to develop the design infrastructure for 16-nanometer FinFET technology, targeting advanced node designs for mobile, networking, servers and FPGA applications.

A conversation on August 20 with Joseph Sawicki, VP and GM of the Mentor Graphics Corp.'s Design to Silicon Division, provided a snapshot of the conundra facing foundries and EDA vendors as they approach sub-20nm process geometries. The landscape is filled with uncertainties, Sawicki warned, but there is no time left to wait for resolution.

Standard lithography uses a set of masks to create a pattern of structures in a photoresist that's exposed to ultraviolet light. The Taiwan team's process eliminates both the masks and the photoresist, relying instead on a metallorganic gas, an organic molecule studded with atoms of platinum.