Part 7/10:
- System-on-Integrated-Chip (SoIC): Chips are stacked face-to-face for ultra-fast data transfer within the package. This method is employed by AMD in their data center GPUs and CPUs, and competitors like Intel and Samsung are still behind.
Such packaging techniques are crucial for AI workloads, where the speed of data transfer between GPU cores, memory, and processors dominates overall system performance. Since switching to a competitor's process would require major redesigns of entire chips, clients are essentially "locked in," making TSMC indispensable.