TSMC has been at the forefront of chip manufacture for some time, though there has been some questions about its continued investment in the relatively large 28nm lines. While competitors such as Intel have been focusing on 20 or 14nm processes, TSMC has been eyeing on its 28nm line for some time, leaving some to question whether or not it has taken a misstep.

In a recent announcement, however, the company seems to have given a good reason for its focus on these larger feature set production lines. In this case, TSMC has announced that its 55, 40, and 28nm production lines have been adapted to produce low-voltage chips. The company said that the ultra low power processes could reduce operating voltages by 20 to 30 percent and increase the battery life of equipment by a factor of between 2 and 10. Established 28nm processes from TSMC have core voltage supply of between 0.85 and 1.05V; newer chips could now draw as little as .6V.

Additionally, the processes do not make previous IP cores and processes obsolete, which means that these new chips will not require a rewrite or retooling of existing customers production. This likely means that TSMC is positioning itself as a supplier to lower-end mobile devices as an inexpensive chip supplier with the key benefit of longer battery life. This could have significant impact on the value of inexpensive phones in the near future.