We were recently talking about how TSMC is hoping to see Apple becoming one of its customers and therefore manufacture hundreds of millions of Ax chips.
The foundry has made a new demonstration of its know-how and expertise by producing A9 chips (from which Apple's A5 was developed) using a 28 nm process (The A5 is manufactured using a 45 to 32 nm process). Thanks to that thinner process, TSMC was able to make it reach 3.1 GHz, 3 times faster than Apple's A5.
For now, TSMC probably doesn't have any customer for that chip that certainly needs way to much power to power a tablet or a smartphone. It is therefore only a demonstration in an attempt to attract new customers.
By Machmeter, original by Lionel