Recently, TSMC had pointed out that smartphones, automotive and IoT will be the three subjects of its growth platform in the next three to five years, which means the performance of these three areas of the products will continue to grow and to be further intelligentized.

For smartphones, though the functionality of smartphones is quite mature by now, but TSMC consider that there are still few features not yet to be developed. Mark Liu, president and co-CEO of TSMC, said in the Q3 investor conference that artificial intelligence and deep learning will drive the silicon content of smartphones to grow. In addition, virtual reality and augmented reality are another two driving force for smartphones.

In terms of automotive area, C. C. Wei, president and co-CEO of TSMC, said, the development of electric cars and unmanned vehicles are pushing automotive industry to consume more and more IC products, which are more advanced sensors and high performance MCUs. Moreover, connected car and Internet of Vehicles will also stimulate the transformation of traditional cars of using more electronic devices.

As for IoT, TSMC has identified the IoT related applications will keep advancing in the future, and not only the network communication products, but also household products. In which, more and more controller ICs will be used and the demand for low power process will increase intensely.

And behind these, high-performance computing is the key element of above devices to grow. TSMC estimates that by 2020, the global high-performance computing chip market will reach $15 billion.