In a new supply chain report today we learn that ARM and TSMC have announced a multi-year agreement to collaborate on a 7nm FinFET process technology which includes a design solution for future low-power, high-performance compute SoCs.

The new agreement expands the companies' long-standing partnership and advances leading-edge process technologies beyond mobile and into next-generation networks and data centers. Additionally, the agreement extends previous collaborations on 16nm and 10nm FinFET that have featured ARM's Artisan Physical IP.

Customers designing their next generation high-performance computing SoCs will benefit from TSMC's industry-leading 7nm FinFET, which will deliver more performance improvement at the same power or lower power at the same performance as compared to our 10nm FinFET process node, according to Cliff Hou, R&D vice president, TSMC.

Such processors could accommodate future Internet of Things (IoT) devices Apple may be considering. Back in 2012 we listed a group of patents that Apple acquired from Canadian inventor Timothy Prior covering such things as home appliances and far beyond. The new 7nm processors could definitely open a new door for Apple products in the future.

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