Dubbed 16nm FinFET Compact (16FFC) the technology has been hardly even announced.  Going back we did find mention earlier this year about another 16nm FinFET process developed specifically for mid-to-low-end mobile devices, wearables and IoT applications.  Now it appears that TSMC is showing that one off a little earlier than planned.

At the time TSMC president and co-CEO CC Wei suggested that the 16FFC process will be ready for volume production in the second half of 2016. He said that TSMC's 16nm FinFET technology will receive a total of about 50 product tape-outs covering different chip products. Total production capacity of TSMC's 16nm FinFET processes at the end of 2016 will triple that a year earlier.

Already TSMC's 16FF+ process has been used in anger with orders for Apple's A9 chips found in the latest iPhone shiny toys. TSMC moved that process to volume production in July.

As for 10nm FinFET, TSMC expects to move the node technology to risk production at the end of 2016, followed by mass production in the first quarter of 2017.