On the evening of August 3, the internal computer system of the TSMC Fab 12 plant was infected with the virus and spread to the Fab 15 and Fab 14 factories through the intranet.
It is reported that the TSMC Fab 12 plant is a 12-inch wafer fab located in Hsinchu's headquarters. It is also the research and development headquarters of the enterprise group, which mainly produces niche-type products; the Fab 15 plant is currently a 28-nanometer and 7-nanometer process production base; and the Fab 14 factory is the main production base of the 16-nanometer process. It is worth noting that the affected part of TSMC is mainly concentrated in the 7-nanometer process, and the affected capacity is about 60,000pcs or more. In addition to 7 nanometers, some 12- and 16-nanometer processes are also affected. The third quarter of each year is the peak season for TSMC customers, especially the A12 series processors that will be launched on Apple's next-generation iPhone. In addition, in the second half of the year, TSMC will also produce 7nm chips for more than ten customers including Huawei Kirin, Qualcomm, AMD and NVIDIA.
Today, TSMC announced the detailed recovery progress after the computer virus attack, indicating that 80% of the tools affected by the virus have been restored, and also warned that some shipments may be delayed, but did not disclose which customers will be affected. Regarding the cause of the virus infection, TSMC said that it was caused by "improper operation" in the process of installing software for new tools. When the tool was connected to TSMC's computer network, it spread.
