TSMC pulled in plans for initial production of its 16-nm FinFET process to the end of 2013. In addition, it hopes to adopt extreme ultraviolet lithography to make 10-nm chips starting in late 2015 but is still researching e-beam as an alternative.

Company executives detailed the new processes and how they aim to get there at an annual symposium here. They also provided an update on their work on 3-D chip stacks and their ongoing ramp of today’s 28-nm process node.

“It looks like we have another 7 to 8 years ahead in advances -- maybe more -- we can see in technology down to 10 and even 7 nm,” said Morris Chang, founder and chief executive of TSMC, speaking to a small group of press after a keynote here.

“Moore’s Law is going to go on and we will be there -- if anyone pursues it, we will pursue it,” he told an audience of several hundred chip designers.

The Abu Dhabi government's investment outfit, Mubadala seems content to underwrite huge loses at GloFo for the foreseeable future.

Mubadala reported that its semiconductor unit ATIC had an accumulated deficit of $1.12 billion as of the end of 2011 and made losses in the past two years.

For those who came in late, ATIC is GloFo's parent company and is the main focus of its semiconductor work. It does have small interests in Calxeda which is a developer of low power server chips.

To make matters worse, Mubadala admitted that it could not be certain that ATIC will be profitable in 2012 or in subsequent years.

Part of the problem is that ATIC was making further investments in boosting capacity and research in a bid to become a "profitable catalyst" for the emirate's economic development.