Speaking in the midst of GTC 2017 with a welcome speech, the head and founder of NVIDIA was repeating much of what was said the day before at the quarterly event. Someone, of course, could be wary of a visible discrepancy between the desire to use only proven technical processes and the willingness to begin deliveries of 12-nm graphics processors Volta generation already in the third quarter this year.
However, this disagreement is imaginary, if you understand the essence of the matter. Colleagues from the site DigiTimes , for example, recall that the 16-nm process technology in the performance of TSMC already exists in three versions, and the so-called "12-nm process technology" is in fact the fourth, the most perfect form of the same 16-nm process technology.
In addition to NVIDIA, this technology process is going to use MediaTek, Silicon Motion and HiSilicon. If the first and the latter are ready to use the 12-nm technology for the manufacture of processors for mobile devices, then Silicon Motion expects to next year to supply controllers for solid-state drives manufactured according to these technological standards. The ruler of controllers will be offered both for enterprise-class drives and for client devices.
Next on the gradation of 10-nm process technology in the performance of TSMC already interested Apple, MediaTek and HiSilicon. The second of the companies, however, abandoned plans to produce a 10-nm processor Helio P35 due to lack of demand, but the Helio X30 will be available in 10-nm technology. Apple will equip its 10-nm processor with its smartphones iPhone 8, and the production of processors has already begun, albeit not without some rough edges.