Start Of 7nm Mobile Processor Testing

Not to be outdone by Samsung, which just announced the start of mass 10nm chipset production, the TSMC foundry has apparently begun taping out the 7nm process. From these initial tests to the mass production lines there will be quite some time, so we won't see phones made with the next node barrier until 2018, but the 7nm milestone will be the most challenging so far, so it's good that foundries are making progress.

According to Suk Lee, TSMC's senior director of design infrastructure marketing: "Building on our longstanding FinFET collaboration with Synopsys, this TSMC certification signifies that the tools from the Galaxy Design Platform are now ready for early engagements at 7nm." This milestone jibes with the foundry's promises to begin risk production in the second half of 2017. 

Samsung won't be far behind, but they'd better focus on the 10nm process first, asSnapdragon 830

 may be late in the game if Samsung snubs its production in favor of its own chipsets. Both the 10nm and 7nm nodes are expected to bring the usual drastic reduction in chipset power draw with the concurrent boost in performance, so we can't wait for the first 10nm benchmarks to hit the tape and gauge what next year's flagships will bring to the table.