TSMC delivers 5nm SoC design, a huge leap from current 7nm standard

DigiTimes:

TSMC has announced delivery of the complete version of its 5nm design infrastructure within the Open Innovation Platform (OIP). This full release enables 5nm systems-on-chip (SoC) designs in next-generation advanced mobile and high-performance computing (HPC) applications, targeting high-growth 5G and artificial intelligence markets.

To give you a sense of how much of Apple’s current product line is built on the current 7nm process, here’s the opening paragraph from the Apple A12 Bionic Wikipedia page:

The Apple A12 Bionic is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. It first appeared in the iPhone XS, XS Max, XR, and 2019 versions of the iPad Air and iPad Mini. It has two high-performance cores which are claimed to be 15% faster and 40% more energy-efficient than the Apple A11 and four high-efficiency cores which are claimed to use 50% less power than the energy-efficient cores in the A11.

Apple’s A12 Bionic chip was built by TSMC using a 7nm process. A move to 5nm means more transistors on each chip. Way more.