Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. is reportedly working on low-cost 80nm process technology that will share general specifications with the 90nm process technology and will be aimed at companies who have enough experience with the 90nm fabrication process and desire to shrink costs.

TSMC’s 80nm process technology is proclaimed to be a photolithographic shrink of the 90nm process technology with low-k dielectrics used today for mass production of various products, including such complex as graphics processing units by ATI Technologies. Typically, TSMC develops photolithographic shrink of its process technologies at approximately the same time with the original fabrication processes, however, due to natural reasons, the development is completed sometime after the original process.

TSMC’s 80nm process technology is expected to offer lower costs compared to the 90nm process technology.

The 110nm process technology of TSMC is a shrink of the company’s 130nm process technology which is available in both high-performance and general-purpose versions using FSG-based dielectrics. Though actual results are design-dependent, TSMC’s 110nm high-performance process also includes transistor enhancements that improve speed and reduce power consumption relative to its 130nm FSG-based technology. Currently NVIDIA Corp. uses 110nm process technology to manufacture its mainstream and high-end graphics processors.

No actual details regarding the 80nm process technology have so far been published, but some web-sites expect that ATI Technologies will have a breed of graphics chips to be made using the fabrication process, including code-named RV535 and RV560 processors.

Neither ATI nor TSMC commented on the news-story.