TSMC "kicks off" 2 nm R&D; research underway for post 2 nm nodes too

Knowledge about TSMC's plans to develop 2 nm nodes have been around for a while now, with TechWeb reporting last year that the manufacturing process will become operational in 2024. Now, DigiTimes is claiming that TSMC has "kicked off its 2 nm process R&D", hardly an expansion on TechWeb's report last year. As Tom's Hardware notes, DigiTimes has published "painstakingly few details" about TSMC's 2 nm nodes. Similarly, TechRadar summarises that DigiTimes has not provided "a wealth of information" in its report.

However, it seems that TSMC has moved from being ready to research 2 nm nodes to actively developing them. Citing an annual shareholders report, DigiTimes claims that the chip foundry is "progressing in research and exploratory studies" for after 2 nm, too. Presumably this would be a node manufactured on a 1 nm process, although there remains some debate about whether this is even possible.

Regardless, do not expect 2 nm chipsets before the middle of the decade at the earliest. According to TechWeb, 3 nm nodes will not enter mass production until 2022, so we could still be a few years from seeing 3 nm chips too. We could be about a year away from 5 nm chipsets hitting the shelves though, with the A14 Bionic, Exynos 1000, Project Whitechapel and the Zen 4 architecture all based on 5 nm processes.