Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) today announced that they have started volume production of 28nm wafers and are shipping chips based on 28nm process to the customers including Altera, AMD and Qualcomm. According to Digitimes:

TSMC's 28nm process offering includes 28HP, 28HPL, 28LP and 28HPM. Among these technology offerings, 28HP, 28HPL and 28LP are all in volume production and 28HPM will be ready for production by the end of 2011, the company said. The production-version design collateral of 28HPM has been distributed to most mobile computing customers for their product-design use.

"The Snapdragon S4 class of processors are manufactured in TSMC's highly sophisticated 28LP process, enabling Qualcomm to deliver the breakthrough combination of high performance and ultra low power to mobile devices," said Jim Clifford, senior VP and GM of operations at Qualcomm, in a statement.

It is also rumored that Apple has partnered with TSMC to manufacture their upcoming quad core A6 processor for next generation iOS devices using the new 28nm process technology. Apple will launch their next generation iPad in first quarter of 2012.