Backend, verification demand for HPC chips staying strong
Julian Ho, Taipei; Willis Ke, DIGITIMES
Backend and verification demand for ASICs, AI chips and HPC (excessive efficiency computing) chips from segments of 5G base stations, servers and datacenters has remained sturdy regardless of the coronavirus outbreak, and TSMC is in pole place to profit from the demand, in response to business sources.
Through its superior foundry and packaging applied sciences, TSMC has landed substantial orders for processing large-size HPC chips for datacenter and server purposes, with the providers additional strengthened with the agency’s sturdy IC verification functionality, the sources stated.
TSMC now maintains an in-house IC testing and verification lab with gear scale on a par with these of devoted home IC evaluation labs, serving to it higher promote its WLSI (wafer stage system integration platform) and appeal to extra worldwide shoppers to undertake the agency’s newer-generation CoWoS know-how requiring the help of more and more subtle IC reliability evaluation, the sources continued.
Advanced packaging know-how is more and more wanted to help the ever-upgrading designs for numerous HPC chips options for AI, server and networking purposes, additionally serving as the biggest driver for extending the relevance of Moore’s Law, the sources commented, including that semiconductor giants Intel, TSMC and Samsung have all been eager on additional upgrading their superior packaging applied sciences.
But for devoted IC take a look at and verification labs, their predominant income progress driver comes from shoppers’ R&D initiatives and launch of recent choices, in comparison with quantity manufacturing for foundry or backend homes. As many main shoppers have turned to undertake superior foundry and packaging processes for his or her high-end HPC chips options integrating a number of heterogeneous chips, the labs can count on vital income good points from more and more subtle verification jobs, the sources indicated.
