TSMC 3nm Process Aims For 250m Transistors Per mm2

Given that we’ve only really seen the 7nm node design platform for around a year now (technically, on a consumer level, with the launch of the short-lived AMD Radeon VII GPU) we’re clearly more than a few years away from seeing our first 3nm release.

In a report via TechPowerUp, however, it seems that TSMC, one of the world’s largest silicon fabricators, has some pretty lofty goals for it. Namely, that they plan their 3nm design to feature over 250 million transistors per square millimeter!

TSMC Reveal Lofty 3nm Design Plans!

It’s a figure that, quite frankly, seems absurdly high. It would, in fact, be over twice that currently seen from the best 7nm designs. While not beyond the realms of possibility though, particularly for a company such as TSMC, it indicates that the 3nm platform will represent a significant step forward not only in terms of processor design but also in terms of consumer CPU and GPU designs.

What Do We Think?

Even optimistic estimates suggest that we shouldn’t expect to see the mainstream adoption of the 3nm platform until at least 2024 and possibly even later than that. Even TSMC isn’t expected to begin low-level scaled manufacturing until 2022/2023. As such, while this all sounds very exciting, it is still (in technological terms) still a long way into the future.

Moving to smaller node designs has, however, proven to be a huge success for companies such as AMD. Particularly since Intel is still plodding along with its 14nm platform and is struggling to even make the move to 12nm. This does, however, all boil down to stronger and faster CPUs and, for us consumers, it indicates that the future is looking more than a little bright!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!