TSMC 5nm process for next generation automotive platform

Building upon multiple successful 16nm designs, TSMC and NXP are expanding their collaboration to create a System-on-Chip (SoC) platform in 5nm to deliver the next generation of automotive processors. Using TSMC’s 5nm process, NXP’s offerings will address a wide variety of functions and workloads, such as connected cockpits, high-performance domain controllers, autonomous driving, advanced networking, hybrid propulsion control and integrated chassis management.

TSMC’s 5nm technology is currently the world’s most advanced process in volume production. NXP will adopt N5P, an enhanced version of TSMC’s 5nm technology, which provides about 20% faster speed or about 40% power reduction compared to the preceding 7nm generation, and is supported by the industry’s most comprehensive design ecosystem.

NXP is a leading global automotive supplier with a rich history in vehicle control, vehicle safety, vehicle infotainment and digital clusters. NXP’s developments on 5nm, initially based on its established S32 architecture, will lead to new architectures offering scalability and a common software environment, further simplifying and enabling the significant increase in software performance required in the future car.

Leveraging the computing power and power efficiency of the 5nm technology, NXP will meet the high levels of integration, power management and compute power required for advanced vehicle architectures as well as their stringent safety and security needs with its renowned IP.

“Modern vehicle architectures need to harmonize software infrastructure across domains to leverage investments, scale deployments and share resources,” said Henri Ardevol, Executive Vice President and GM, Automotive Processing at NXP. “NXP aims to deliver the premier automotive processing platform based on TSMC’s 5nm process, with a consistent architecture across domains and with differentiation in performance, power, and world-class safety and security.

“Car OEMs need a simpler coordination of advanced functions across control-units, the flexibility to locate and port applications seamlessly, and the certainty of execution in a critical safety and security context. NXP is powerfully positioned to deliver those automotive-specific benefits, now with leading-edge metrics through the TSMC partnership.”

Dr Kevin Zhang, Vice President of Business Development at TSMC, said: “TSMC’s latest collaboration with NXP truly demonstrates how automotive semiconductors have evolved from simple microcontrollers to sophisticated processors on par with chips used in the most demanding high-performance computing systems.

“TSMC has enjoyed a long history of strong partnership with NXP, and we are excited to take the automotive platform another step forward into the most advanced technology available in the market and unleash the power of NXP’s innovative products for intelligent automotive applications and more.”

NXP and TSMC expect the delivery of first samples of 5nm devices to NXP’s key customers in 2021.