TSMC is sending 0.13 micron chips out to seven clients, the company announced today. The first customer to get his or her grubby mitts upon one will do so at the end of this month.

This means that we can expect to see the first products in the shops just about in time for new-year's resolutions, according to European President Hans Rohrer.

Products taping out, as they say, cover the whole range from multiple CPUs to SRAMs and communications devices.

The 0.13 micron process feature a 1.0V core, 2.5V or 3.3V I/Os, a gate length of 0.08 micron (of which there were some very cool photos that we'll try to find a link to) and a ring oscillator performance rating of 14 picosecond/gate for the high performance process.

The company also announced that it will be working to expand its presence in Europe, and mentioned two new customers: Cambridge Silicon Radio and Element 14. Element 14 says that it will probably have products based on the new geometry out by the middle of next year. ®