TSMC said that strong demand for mobile devices helped push sales over the top. TSMC completely dominates the 28nm market, and the process is mostly used by GPU and SoC makers, such as Nvidia, AMD and of the elephant in the room, Qualcomm.
Chips made on the 28nm process accounted for 22 percent of TSMC’s sales in Q4 2012, up from 13 percent in the previous quarter.
Next generation ARM SoCs, including Qualcomm’s next generation Krait parts and Nvidia’s Tegra 4 are 28nm parts, so the process is likely to account for an even bigger share by the end of the year. In case Apple joins the fun, 2013 could be a great year for TSMC.