ARM and TSMC entered in a "multi-year agreement" that "extends beyond 20 nm technology" to enable the production of next-gen ARMv8 processors that use FinFET transistors and leverages the ARM's Artisan IP that currently covers a production process range from 250 nm to 20 nm.
"By working closely with TSMC, we are able to leverage TSMC's ability to quickly ramp volume production of highly integrated SoCs in advanced silicon process technology," said Simon Segars, executive vice president and general manager, Processor and Physical IP Divisions, ARM. "The ongoing deep collaboration with TSMC provides customers earlier access to FinFET technology to bring high-performance, power-efficient products to market."
ARM unveiled its 64-bit architecture in October of last year and said that ARMv8 chips will be targeted ant consumer and enterprise markets. First processors are expected to be announced later this year, while prototype servers running the processors are unlikely to surface until early 2014. ARM said that TSMC's FinFET process "promises impressive speed and power improvements as well as leakage reduction", which the company hopes will contribute to help solve the problem of scaling SoCs in high-volume production.