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Tag: AMD

  • System76 Debuts Updated AMD-Based Pangolin Linux Laptop

    System76 Debuts Updated AMD-Based Pangolin Linux Laptop

    System76 has unveiled a new and updated version of the Pangolin, its AMD-based Linux laptop.

    System76 is a US-based computer maker that specializes in Linux-compatible machines. Each component is selected for maximum compatibility, so users don’t have to worry about their WiFi or Bluetooth not working reliably. Whereas most of System76’s laptops are Intel-based, the Pangolin is the company’s AMD offering, including both an AMD Ryzen 7 6800U CPU and an AMD Radeon 680M GPU.

    The fully redesigned Pangolin is ready to impress! Sleek magnesium alloy build, beautiful 15-inch display, and up to 10 hours of battery life round out its portfolio. Pursue ambition from any location. With all eyes on your System76 laptop, you’re bound to meet new allies along the way.

    The new model comes with 32GB of RAM and two M.2 SSD NVMe slots that can be outfitted with up to 16GB of storage.

    Pangolin is the only System76 laptop powered by both an AMD Ryzen processor and AMD Radeon graphics. The CPU—a Ryzen 7 6800U chip—tackles both at fast speeds for work and relaxation. Operate applications 40% faster and experience fluid responsiveness thanks to a higher bandwidth from DDR5 RAM and PCIe 4.0 storage.

    Another nice feature is the Privacy Switch, a hardware switch that gives users the ability to instantly kill the laptop’s camera.

    Like all of System76’s machines, the Pangolin comes with a choice of Ubuntu or the company’s own Pop!_OS Linux distro. PoP!_OS is based on Ubuntu, but System76 updates the kernel, graphics drivers, and select other packages to ensure maximum compatibility and performance with newer hardware. The distro also includes a number of productivity features, such as a tiling window mode, which we will cover in more detail in an upcoming review as part of our Linux Distro Reviews series.

    In the meantime, users wanting the latest AMD Linux laptop can order the System76 Pangolin starting at $1,299.

  • Intel Loses $8 Billion Market Value in ‘Historic Collapse’

    Intel Loses $8 Billion Market Value in ‘Historic Collapse’

    Intel’s recovery hit a major speed bump Friday as the company saw $8 billion of its market value wiped away, surprising analysts.

    Intel has been working to reclaim its spot as the world’s top chipmaker but has been experiencing setbacks in recent months. The company announced a surprise $500 million loss at the end of July, but that doesn’t begin to compare with the bloodbath resulting from the company’s latest announcement.

    Late Thursday, Intel gave guidance for the upcoming quarter that was billions below analysts’ expectations. Analysts were expecting $14 billion in revenue, but Intel’s guidance for Q1 was in the $10.5 to $11.5 billion range.

    “No words can portray or explain the historic collapse of Intel,” said Rosenblatt Securities’ Hans Mosesmann, according to Reuters, who says the analyst was among 21 analysts that cut Intel’s price target.

    Intel, like many companies, is struggling with a slump in the computer market as post-pandemic demand has significantly slowed. The company is also facing a slowdown in the data center market, a segment it has traditionally dominated.

    Read More: AMD Continues to Chip Away at Intel’s Server Dominance

    None of that, however, compares to the challenges Intel faces catching up with its rivals in the technology department. TSMC has a significant technological lead over virtually every other chipmaker. What’s more, Intel’s biggest rival, AMD, relies on TSMC to manufacture its chips. This has helped AMD make major headway against Intel, both in the computer and data center space.

    “AMD’s Genoa and Bergamo (data center) chips have a strong price-performance advantage compared to Intel’s Sapphire Rapids processors, which should drive further AMD share gains,” said Matt Wegner, an analyst at YipitData, told Reuters.

    Unfortunately, analysts believe Intel’s troubles may be just beginning.

    “It is now clear why Intel needs to cut so much cost as the company’s original plans prove to be fantasy,” brokerage Bernstein said.

    “The magnitude of the deterioration is stunning, and brings potential concern to the company’s cash position over time.”

  • AMD Continues to Chip Away at Intel’s Server Dominance

    AMD Continues to Chip Away at Intel’s Server Dominance

    AMD is continuing to make inroad against Intel in the server market, chipping away (pun intended) at the latter’s lead.

    Intel was once the undisputed king of the semiconductor market. While that was true across the entire PC industry, it was especially true in the server market, where the company’s market share was 98% as recently as five years ago. According to Mercury Research (via Network World), as of Q122, AMD’s server market share is now 11.6%, dropping Intel’s to 88.4%.

    AMD has its Epyc line of processors to thank for the success it’s enjoying.

    “It’s been a long, gradual increase. If you look at the data set now, AMD has completed their third consecutive year of having on-quarter gains in share,” said Dean McCarron, president of Mercury Research. “The main driver there is that AMD has its Epyc processors … and each generation has been a little bit more successful than the prior one.”

    See also: Linus Torvolds Switches to AMD, Slams Intel

    AMD’s reputation for consistently delivering quality products is also helping the company gain new business.

    “This isn’t the first time [AMD]’s had success in the market, they had success more than a decade ago, and now they’re getting back in,” McCarron added. “The key here is that they’ve established a pattern of delivery on product reliability.”

    McCarron’s comments confirm the issues Intel has had in recent years. Dell, one of Intel’s most loyal partners, had to look to AMD in 2019 as a result of Intel’s supply issues. Similarly, Cloudflare pivoted away from Intel in late 2021 because AMD’s Epyc processors were much more energy efficient. Google Cloud also moved to AMD, thanks to the performance gains it offered over Intel.

    AMD’s performance has also helped it achieve the highest share of the x86 processor market in its history, according to TechSpot. As of Q122, AMD has 27.7% of the overall market, and 18.3% of the x86 desktop market.

    Under CEO Pat Gelsinger, Intel is determined to turn the tide back in its favor, with Gelsinger even going so far as to say “AMD [is] in the rearview mirror.”

    Unfortunately for Gelsinger, the facts don’t support that claim just yet.

  • CES 2023: AMD Unveils Its Apple M1 Killer

    CES 2023: AMD Unveils Its Apple M1 Killer

    AMD is taking aim at Apple, unveiling a chip it claims will outperform Apple’s custom silicon while offering superior battery life.

    Apple’s M1 custom silicon took the semiconductor world by storm, offering an unrivaled combination of performance and efficiency. Other companies have been working to come up with an answer, and AMD believes it has an M1 killer.

    According to MacRumors, the AMD Ryzen 7940HS “is 34% faster in multiprocessing workloads than the ‌M1 Pro‌ and 20% faster than the ‌M2‌ in AI tasks.”

    In addition to performance, the new chips offer significantly better battery life. In fact, AMD says the “Ryzen 7040 series will offer 30+ hours of video playback in ultrathin notebooks.”

    If AMD’s new chips live up to the claims, it could finally offer a compelling alternative to Apple’s custom silicon.

  • The Chip Shortage Is Now a Chip Glut

    The Chip Shortage Is Now a Chip Glut

    The semiconductor industry has swung from one extreme to another, going from a shortage to a glut as consumer demand changes.

    During the height of the pandemic, semiconductors were in short supply. A combination of production issues as a result of lockdowns, combined with increased demand for computers and other electronic as people worked from home, led to a massive shortage of chips. The shortage was also spurred by stimulus money being poured into the economy, giving individuals more disposable income to spend on tablets, gaming consoles, and more.

    According to The Wall Street Journal, that situation has changed dramatically as consumer spending has decreased. The overall economy is in the midst of a downturn, with stimulus money having long-since dried up, layoffs impacting multiple industries, and growing uncertainty about the future of the economy.

    The result has been increased availability of computers and other electronics, not to mention falling prices.

    “Today we have a large inventory, especially on the consumer side, which is driving very aggressive pricing because all of us are trying to reduce those inventories,” said HP Chief Executive Enrique Lores.

    Chipmakers and PC manufacturers are already taking steps to stabilize supply and demand such as reducing the number of chips they manufacture, or computers they ship, to help drive up demand.

    “Even as they were selling through their inventory, they were not replenishing stock to the same levels,” said AMD chief Lisa Su. “I think the market will continue to be volatile.”

  • AMD and Google Cloud Deliver EPYC-Based Confidential Computing

    AMD and Google Cloud Deliver EPYC-Based Confidential Computing

    AMD and Google Cloud are expanding their partnership, applying the power of EPYC processors to confidential computing.

    Confidential computing is a vital aspect of cloud security, helping to secure data while it’s being used. The technology keeps the data sequestered within the a protected enclave of the CPU, with only authorized programs cleared to access it. AMD and Google Cloud have unveiled new confidential computing virtual machines (VMs) powered by AMD’s EPYC processors.

    “AMD has worked collaboratively with Google Cloud and Google’s security experts to provide customers access to advanced security technology while still achieving high performance in their workloads,” said Lynn Comp, corporate vice president, Cloud Business Unit, AMD. “With 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors powering the new confidential computing offerings from Google Cloud, customers can continue to enjoy the general purpose and compute optimized workload capabilities they’ve had from Google Cloud, all while feeling confident in the security of their data.”

    “By providing our customers with advanced security technology from 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors, we’re not only delivering more performance, but also optimizing Confidential Computing for more types of workloads,” said Nelly Porter, Group Product Manager, Google Cloud. “At Google Cloud, we believe that continuously investing in emerging technologies like Confidential Computing with partners like AMD will help us address our customers’ most pressing privacy concerns.”

    The news is a big win for AMD as the company continues to eat into Intel’s lead in the server market. After three years of gains, AMD’s share recently came in at 11.6%, driven largely by the success of its EPYC line.

    AMD says the new confidential computing VMs are available in regions around the globe.

  • Vultr Now Using AMD EPYC Over Intel As Default Option

    Vultr Now Using AMD EPYC Over Intel As Default Option

    Cloud provider Vultr has begun offering AMD virtual machines (VMs), a significant departure from its past.

    Vultr previously only offered Intel VMs, but the company has begun deploying AMD EPYC, thanks to the performance the platform offers. In fact, AMD’s platform is now the one Vultr will recommend as its default option.

    “This is the first time we’ve offered AMD processor-powered virtual machines, and given their exceptional performance, these VMs are now our default, and recommended option for most users,” reads the company’s statement.

    “AMD has pushed the performance and technology capabilities of the EPYC family of processors over the last few years. 3rd generation EPYC processors, which power our new VMs, continue that trajectory, providing up to 64 cores in a single CPU. The particular 3rd Gen EPYC processors that underpin our new VMs are powered by AMD’s Zen 3 microarchitecture, which delivers fantastic performance per core along with a maximum frequency of 3.675GHz.”

    For customers that still want Intel, Vultr will continue to support them. Nonetheless, the switch to AMD as its default option is certainly a big win for AMD.

  • Intel Wins Massive EU Antitrust Case, Overturning €1 Billion Fine

    Intel Wins Massive EU Antitrust Case, Overturning €1 Billion Fine

    Intel has scored a major legal victory in the EU, overturning a 12 year-old verdict that resulted in a €1 billion fine.

    The case stemmed from Intel’s practice of offering rebates to computer manufacturers if they primarily used its chips, rather than rival AMD’s. The EU Commission fined Intel €1 billion for what it perceived as Intel abusing its dominant market position.

    According to The Irish Times, the General Court annulled the decision, criticizing the EU Commission’s decision.

    “The (European) Commission’s analysis is incomplete and does not make it possible to establish to the requisite legal standard that the rebates at issue were capable of having, or likely to have, anticompetitive effects,” judges said.

    Interestingly, the General Court — the EU’s second-highest — had previously upheld the decision in 2014. The EU’s highest court, the EU Court of Justice, told the General Court to reconsider Intel’s appeal in 2017, leading to this latest decision.

    It’s unclear what will happen next, with the Commission saying it will consider the decision and what, if any, steps it will take next.

  • Intel’s CEO: ‘AMD In the Rearview Mirror…Never Again In the Windshield’

    Intel’s CEO: ‘AMD In the Rearview Mirror…Never Again In the Windshield’

    Intel’s CEO Pat Gelsinger released a video on LinkedIn welcoming the new year, and took the opportunity to take a major swipe at rival AMD.

    Intel has had a rough few years, with the company losing its once undisputed dominance in the semiconductor industry. TSMC is now the world’s largest chipmaker, and AMD has released a steady stream of competitive chips — in the form of its Ryzen line — that have challenged Intel across its various markets. The company has seen some high-profile defections among its customers, thanks to the performance and efficiency of AMD’s latest designs.

    According to Gelsinger, however, those days are in the past, thanks to Intel’s Alder Lake line of chips.

    “Alder Lake, all of sudden, boom! We are back in the game! AMD in the rearview mirror in clients, and never again will they be in the windshield,” Gelsinger said.

    A number of the commenters who responded to Gelsinger’s post were quick to point out that Intel is still technologically behind AMD. While Intel has barely made the move to 10nm processors, AMD is already on 7nm, and will soon move to 4nm.

    Benjamin Banks, a self-processed “Linux nerd,” wrote:

    Intel launched a 10nm processor in November 2021, 364 days after AMD launched their 7nm chip, and somehow you claim superiority? Intel’s arrogance is staggering. AMD are about to launch a 4nm chip, while still Intel lags behind in what can only be described as a legacy manufacturing process.

    Patryk Jarosz, Information Technology Technical Specialist at IKEA, voiced similar sentiments:

    It also speaks volumes how they claim superiority with much newer product… Lets see how this stands up to whatever AMD will bring out in few months, shall we? 

    There’s no doubt Gelsinger is in the process of turning Intel around and helping it get back on track. As many of the comments point out, however, the company still has a long way to go before AMD is truly in the rearview — if that scenario is even still possible.

  • Meta Adopts AMD EPYC

    Meta Adopts AMD EPYC

    AMD has scored another win over Intel, with Meta (formerly Facebook) choosing the EPYC for its data centers.

    Intel has long had a near-stranglehold on the server and data center market. Even as AMD chipped away at its lead in the desktop market, Intel continued to dominate the server market.

    Recently, however, AMD has been making headway in Intel’s core market, scoring a number of high-profile contracts. Cloudflare chose AMD’s EPYC over Intel’s processors, thanks largely to the higher power efficiency AMD’s chips provide.

    Meta has become the latest company to choose EPYC for its data centers, according to an AMD statement.

    AMD announced Meta is the latest major hyperscale cloud company that has adopted AMD EPYC CPUs. AMD and Meta worked together to define an open, cloud-scale, single-socket server designed for performance and power efficiency, based on the 3rd Gen EPYC processor. Further details will be discussed at the Open Compute Global Summit later this week.

  • Intel Uses Dishonest Tactics in Benchmark Comparing i9 to Ryzen 9

    Intel Uses Dishonest Tactics in Benchmark Comparing i9 to Ryzen 9

    Intel has been called out for using underhanded tactics in its latest benchmarks, which demonstrate the i9 12900K besting the Ryzen 9 5950X.

    Once the undisputed leader in the semiconductor market, Intel has seen its lead eroded by its own missteps, combined with intense competition from AMD and Arm-based processors. CEO Pat Gelsinger is intent on returning the company to its former glory, and the new 12th Gen Alder Lake is a big part of those plans. The company has been touting its performance, especially compared to AMD.

    There’s only one problem: Intel stacked the deck in a big way when benchmarking the chip against AMD’s Ryzen 9.

    According to Notebookcheck Intel allowed its i9 processors to consume 241 W at PL1 while constraining the Ryzen to a mere 105 W, giving the i9 more than twice the power.

    Even worse, Intel conducted the benchmark using an older version of Windows that was known to negatively impact Ryzen performance. Microsoft and AMD have released fixes for the issue, but the benchmark doesn’t reflect that, leading to yet another major performance advantage for the i9.

    Gelsinger has made it clear he wants to rebuild the company’s credibility. Perhaps a good place to start would be honest benchmarking.

  • PSA: AMD and Microsoft Fix Ryzen Slowdown With Windows 11

    PSA: AMD and Microsoft Fix Ryzen Slowdown With Windows 11

    AMD Ryzen users can finally update to Windows 11 without taking a major performance hit, thanks to a pair of updates.

    Windows 11 is Microsoft’s much-anticipated update to its long-running operating system (OS). The OS brings a host of new features and refinements, but it came with a particularly nasty issue for AMD users: Ryzen chips experienced significant slowdowns due to a bug that caused the Level 3 cache to take a major performance hit.

    The two companies have released a fix, in the form of the latest Windows update and AMD Chipset Driver 3.10.08.506.

    AMD users should update immediately.

  • Intel CEO: Previous CEOs Lost Focus on What Made Company Successful

    Intel CEO: Previous CEOs Lost Focus on What Made Company Successful

    Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger isn’t pulling any punches about why Intel has struggled recently, blaming his predecessors for leading the company the wrong way.

    Intel was once the undisputed leader of the semiconductor industry. In recent years, however, it has largely been eclipsed by TSMC, with even long-time rival AMD beating the company’s chips in performance and efficiency. Intel has also struggled with manufacturing issues, unfixable security flaws and more.

    In an interview with Axios, Gelsinger blamed previous leaders for losing the “maniacal” focus on manufacturing that helped make Intel such a powerhouse. The CEO believes much of that was due to previous CEOs not being engineers, as he is.

    Gelsinger wants to turn the company’s manufacturing around so much that if a client needs a million chips on Monday, Intel will have them on Sunday night — a far cry from the company’s recent inability to deliver enough chips to keep customers happy.

  • AMD Ryzen Performance Takes Another Hit With First Windows 11 Patch

    AMD Ryzen Performance Takes Another Hit With First Windows 11 Patch

    Windows 11 offers many welcome improvements but has spelled trouble for AMD Ryzen users, and the first patch makes it worse.

    Reports quickly emerged that Windows 11 was poorly optimized for the Ryzen processors, resulting in decreased Level 3 cache performance.

    Users hoping the first Windows 11 patch would fix the problem are in for a disappointment, as the new patch actually makes it worse, according TechPowerUp. The issue can result in a up to a 15% loss of performance.

    Fortunately, it appears Microsoft and AMD are working on the problem, with a fix rumored to be coming later this month.

  • AMD Ready to Manufacture Arm Chips

    AMD Ready to Manufacture Arm Chips

    AMD is ready to manufacture Arm chips, despite it being a competing platform.

    AMD, once firmly in second place behind Intel, has been making major headway in the semiconductor industry. Recent generations of its chips have surpassed Intel, both in performance and energy consumption.

    Arm, on the other hand, is the undisputed champion of the mobile world, powering smartphones and tablets for most of the major manufacturers. With Apple switching its Mac platform to its Arm-based M1 chips, the company is poised to make major inroads in Intel and AMD’s traditional stronghold. Unlike AMD or Intel, Arm creates semiconductor designs that other companies manufacture — and in some cases customize — for their own use.

    Despite being a competing platform, AMD appears ready to manufacture Arm-based semiconductors, should its customers want it.

    “But I’ll tell you from my standpoint, when you look at compute solutions, whether it’s x86 or ARM or even other areas, that is an area for our focus on investment for us,” AMD CFO Devinder Kumar said, according to Tom’s Hardware. “We know compute really well. Even ARM, as you referenced, we have a very good relationship with ARM. And we understand that our customers want to work with us with that particular product to deliver the solutions. We stand ready to go ahead and do that even though it’s not x86, although we believe x86 is a dominant strength in that area.”

    With TSMC recently announcing it was raising its prices by the biggest margin in a decade, AMD may well be able to build a successful business manufacture Arm designs for its customers.

  • Cloudflare Pivots Way From Intel in Next-Gen Servers

    Cloudflare Pivots Way From Intel in Next-Gen Servers

    Cloudflare is the latest company to ditch Intel, announcing it will not be using the company’s processors in its next generation servers.

    Cloudflare’s content delivery network (CDN) and security services are used by some of the biggest names on the web. The company’s servers handle some 25 million HTTP requests every second. As result, Cloudflare chooses the technology it uses very carefully.

    When the company evaluated processors for its 11th generation servers, it evaluated Intel, AMD and the Ampere Altra ARM architecture. Cloudflare found that Intel’s latest Ice Lake Xeon processors matched AMD in performance, but their “power consumption was several hundred watts higher per server – that’s enormous. This meant that Intel’s Performance per Watt was unattractive.”

    In contrast both AMD and Ampere both made the company’s shortlist. Cloudflare ultimate went with AMD’s 64 core EPYC 7713, which provided roughly 29% better performance, while maintaining similar power consumption and thermal levels as the previous generation.

    Cloudflare’s revelation is a blow to Intel as the company is struggling to regain its former dominance in the semiconductor industry.

  • Intel May Be Trying to Buy GlobalFoundries

    Intel May Be Trying to Buy GlobalFoundries

    Intel may be making a major play in the semiconductor industry, attempting to purchase GlobalFoundries.

    GlobalFoundries was created in 2008 when AMD spun off its manufacturing arm when it went fabless. GlobalFoundries has gone on to become the fourth-largest foundry.

    Meanwhile, Intel is working to revive its fortunes under new CEO Pat Gelsinger, making a major acquisition a very real possibility. According to The Wall Street Journal a possible deal could be worth as much as $30 billion.

    GlobalFoundries is denying the report, so it remains to be seen if a deal will happen.

  • TSMC Turns in Record Quarter, Warns of Ongoing Shortages

    TSMC Turns in Record Quarter, Warns of Ongoing Shortages

    TSMC reported its quarterly earnings, including record sales and an 11% increase in revenue.

    TSMC is the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturer. The company is the primary chip-maker for Apple, and also makes chips for Intel, Qualcomm, AMD, NVIDIA, Alphabet and others.

    The company has now reported record revenue of $13.29 billion, a 28% increase. Net profit was up 11%, coming in at $4.81 billion.

    “Our second quarter business was mainly driven by continued strength in HPC and Automotive-related demand,” said Wendell Huang, VP and Chief Financial Officer of TSMC. “Moving into third quarter 2021, we expect our business to be supported by strong demand for our industry-leading 5nm and 7nm technologies, driven by all four growth platforms, which are smartphone, HPC, IoT and Automotive-related applications.”

    TSMC is projecting third-quarter revenue to come in somewhere between $14.6 billion and $14.9 billion.

    According to Bloomberg, the company also warned chip shortages could continue into next year, although automakers may see some relief as early as this quarter.

  • Windows 11 CPU Requirement Angering Users

    Windows 11 CPU Requirement Angering Users

    Microsoft has announced its upcoming Windows 11 and, while there’s much to like, its CPU requirements are upsetting some users.

    Windows 11 is the next major iteration of the Windows operating system. It includes a number of major new features, not the least of which is the ability to run Android apps, both from the Microsoft Store and via sideloading.

    The OS CPU requirement, however, will leave many users out in the cold, even those with relatively new, powerful devices. According to Microsoft, Windows 11 will only support Intel 8th Gen Core and AMD Ryzen 2000 series and newer CPUs. Older CPUs will not be able to run the new OS.

    Particularly surprising is the fact that the company’s own Surface Studio 2 runs the older Intel 7th Gen Core CPU, meaning it will not be able to run Windows 11 despite costing over $3,000.

    While leaving older hardware behind is a common practice for Apple, Microsoft has traditionally supported older hardware longer as a result of the larger user base and the company’s focus on the business market. Microsoft is clearly willing to break with tradition to bring to market the benefits and security upgrades Windows 11 promises.

  • AMD Scores Win as Google Cloud Chooses AMD EPYC Processors

    AMD Scores Win as Google Cloud Chooses AMD EPYC Processors

    AMD has scored a big win over rival Intel, as Google Cloud has selected the AMD EPYC processors to power its new family of Tau Virtual Machines (VMs).

    Intel has long been the dominant chipmaker in the data center industry, along with desktop and mobile computers, but missteps and mismanagement have opened the door for AMD. For its part, AMD’s latest chipsets have been providing superior performance to Intel, paving the way for AMD to make significant inroads in the desktop, mobile and gaming industries.

    Google has now selected the company’s EPYC processors to power its Tau VMs, in a further blow to Intel. The Tau VMs “offers 56% higher absolute performance and more than 40% higher price performance for scale-out workloads,” further validating AMD’s performance benefits.

    “At Google Cloud, our customers’ compute needs are evolving,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. “By collaborating with AMD, Google Cloud customers can now leverage amazing performance for scale-out applications, with great price-performance, all without compromising x86 compatibility.”

    “We designed 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors to meet the growing demand from cloud and enterprise customers for high-performance, cost-effective solutions with optimal TCO,” said AMD President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su. “We work closely with Google Cloud and are proud they selected AMD to exclusively power the new Tau VM T2D instance which provides customers with powerful new options to run their most demanding scale-out workloads.”

  • TSMC and MIT Leapfrog IBM, Make 1nm Breakthrough

    TSMC and MIT Leapfrog IBM, Make 1nm Breakthrough

    TSMC and MIT have made a major advancement in semiconductor design, with a 1nm breakthrough.

    TSMC is a global leader in the semiconductor industry. The company makes chips for Apple, Qualcomm, AMD, NVIDIA, Alphabet, Huawei and Intel. Currently, TSMC uses 5nm chips. AMD is working to transition to 5nm and Intel is still struggling to move to 7nm. IBM made headlines when it announced it had made a breakthrough on 2nm chips, although they aren’t expected for another four years.

    MIT and TSMC have now one-upped IBM, according to Taiwan News, making a major breakthrough with 1nm chips. The discovery was initially made by MIT, although MIT’s researchers were using TSMC components.

    The announcement is further bad news for Intel. Once the leader in semiconductor design, Intel has increasingly faced supply and development issues, leading it to turn to TSMC to outsource some production. With TSMC now closing in on 1nm, the gap between the two companies will only continue to widen.