TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) on Tuesday (Oct. 26) announced its N4P process, a performance-focused upgrade of its 5-nanometer technology platform.

The latest system on a chip is the third major upgrade to TSMC’s family of 5nm silicon, according to a press release from the company. The world’s largest contract chipmaker said the N4P offers an 11% performance boost over the original N5 (5nm) technology and a 6% boost over N4.

The Taiwanese chipmaker added that compared to its original 5nm chips, N4P offers a 22% power efficiency improvement, in addition to a 6% boost in transistor density. N4P also reduces process complexity and improves wafer cycle time by cutting down the number of masks.

“With N4P, TSMC strengthens our portfolio of advanced logic semiconductor technologies, each with its unique blend of performance, power efficiency, and cost. N4P was optimized to provide a further enhanced advanced technology platform for both HPC and mobile applications,” said Senior Vice President of Business Development Dr. Kevin Zhang (張曉強).

“Between all the variants of N5, N4, and N3 [3nm] technologies, our customers will have the ultimate flexibility and unmatched choice of the best mix of attributes for their products," Zhang added.