TSMC really cranked up the process technology treadmill when it announced, earlier this year, that its 28nm process would be a full node affair rather than the expected half node.
TSMC's practice of offering its customers half-node processes which deliver a shrink, but don't have the same support as the full node processes, was amended at the 28nm generation with the announcement that 28nm would be getting the same support in terms of cell libraries and other facilities as a full node process would have.
Those taking advantage of the new strategy are Altera, TSMC's lead development partner on the high performance version of the 28nm process, and Qualcomm which is TSMC's lead development partner on the low power TSMC process.
Both Altera and Qualcomm will go straight from 45nm to 28nm, by-passing 32nm.
Qualcomm plans to tape out 28nm chips this time next year.
Whether Intel's Atom netbook chip, which is to be manufactured at TSMC, will use the 32nm process or the 28nm process is not known.
But the first Qualcomm chip-set to use the 28nm process will be a SnapDragon chip-set used for netbooks.
Which makes Intel's decision to go to TSMC all the more understandable.
Hmmm ... this is chip marketing spin at its best!! Good stuff, more of it!!!
My guess is that squeezing down to 28nm rather than 32nm turned out to be easy, making 28nm the next natural full mode following from 45nm and TSMC the industry's hero. Remember 32nm was a 'SWAG' anyway; there's no sacrosanct mathematical progression.
Thank heavens not all of the swash-buckling bravado hasd gone from the industry ... it was really in danger of becoming quite boring!
Thanks Malcolm, if it stops Otellini saying intel is a couple of generations ahead of the rest of the industry, it will have done us a service.