Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, and as such is constantly under pressure from its customers and competitors. The company recently announced that its newest 28nm process has entered mass production. Smaller process geometries typically mean that a faster, smaller, and cheaper processor will be available.

Two of TSMC’s biggest customers are AMD and NVIDIA. Both have taped out GPU designs using TSMC’s 28nm High Performance (28HP) process. AMD’s next-generation GPU series is codenamed Southern Islands. The Tahiti GPU is supposed to launch early in December, while NVIDIA’s Kepler GPU will launch in February of 2012.

28HP is the first process from TSMC to use High-k Metal Gate (HKMG) technology, as opposed to the typical silicon oxynitride (SiON) found in 40nm GPUs. HKMG uses a material with a high dielectric constant instead of the traditional silicon dioxide gate dielectric. This allows for a substantial reduction in gate leakage, thus lowering overall power consumption and allowing for higher clock speeds.

• READ MORE (Source): DailyTech – Next-generation 28nm GPUs Could Be 45 Percent Faster