Most fabless semiconductor companies are "chip design companies". Most make "standard parts" which sell in the tens of millions of units.
If a company/customer wanted something specific in a semiconductor, the development cost is fairly prohibitive unless the product launch is guaranteed with a large (again, millions) number of units.
Semiconductor companies will often work in conjunction with their large customers to make their "standard products" work more efficiently with the customer's desired end product. The semiconductor maker and device maker are advancing together technologically, that is they both understand what is requested in the "next generation" device, and they work in conjunction to create a device that can deliver the new functions. Hardware tech advancements are more dependent on the semiconductor maker creating a "standard product" chip that can do what the device maker wants, and after the semiconductor is available to device maker will use it to build the next generation device which incorporate the new function.
For example - SIMO makes flash controllers, and one of the latest technologies is gen4 PCIe SSD. SIMO has been able to make this chip for a while, but they've been waiting for Intel to release a PC processor chip which can utilize gen4 PCIe connectivity. As Intel and SIMO both add this technology to their chips, the PC makers will build PCs with gen4 PCIe connectivity for the SSD. So....the semiconductor incorporates the technology, and then the device maker uses the functional semis to create a device which has the new technology. If SIMO released it's PCIe gen4 SSD flash controller two years ago, no one would buy it because most PC processors couldn't yet handle it.
Since there are so many interconnected pieces in the device puzzle, these developmental roadmaps are being worked on years and years in advance. It's not like a device maker just asks a chipmaker out of the blue to make something new. If it happened that way, the surrounding components probably wouldn't be able to make use of the "new" thing.
Firmware is also used to customize standard semiconductor products to work properly with the customers end device.
I don't think TSMC designs chips. TSMC takes designs from semiconductor companies, and makes chips..
That's lots of rambling, but there ya go! |
