[alberth]

> N2 is shaping up to be TSMC's most important node since N7

Is it?

N2, from an energy & perf improvement seems on par with any generation node update.

          N2:N3   N3:N5  N5:N7
  Power   ~30%    ~30%    ~30%
  Perf    ~15%    ~15%    ~15%

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/tsmc-reveals-2nm-fabricati...

[aurareturn]

Yes. It has more tape outs at this stage of development than both N5 or N3. It’s wildly popular for chip designers it seems.

[alberth]

I thought Apple gets exclusive access to the latest node for the first 1-2 years. Is that not the case?

[aurareturn]

No. That's not the case. Maybe for a few months only.

[alberth]

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't TSMC launch N3 in 2022, and still only Apple uses this latest/smallest node.

Both AMD and NVIDIA are using N4.

[aurareturn]

Apple, Mediatek, Qualcomm, Intel