Comments Locked

11 Comments

Back to Article

  • Sahrin - Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - link

    see what a really aggressive ARM design could do on a cutting-edge process. I get the impression that one of the things holding ARM back from being competitive (with Moorestown, forget mainstream x86) is that it not only constrained by the power requirements, but even further by the aged process nodes that it is fabbed on by less experienced foundries.

    As for AMD; this would only be a win. As you point out, it's only AMD's unwillingness to pay to 'be like Intel' that holds them back. The entire notion is that you 'spread R&D across many customers' and improve the quality of your top-end processes (which benefits first and foremost AMD).

    I imagine the game console manufacturers will be all over GF when the time for renewal comes. Intel-like volume, QC, Process tech? Sold.

    And the final piece is nVidia. With the way GF is shaping up (and the comparatively incompetent manner in which TSMC is handling their process transitions), I don't see how nVidia can avoid setting up shop with GF. TSMC needs to start getting serious about process development, or they're going to lose every single high-performance (read: high-margin) customer they have to GF.
  • RedemptionAD - Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - link

    Except that GF is kinda part of AMD and the ATI graphics cards may prove a limit, but that depends on the contract limitations.
  • Zoomer - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - link

    I'd say it'll probably be nVidia that would be reluctant. It's not like having early access to your competitior's general design relatively early on is a bad thing. :p
  • yanfei - Sunday, July 25, 2010 - link

    ======= http://www.fashionshoppong.us=======
  • veri745 - Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - link

    "A good AMD design coupled with a good process from GF could do some damage. Will Bulldozer be that design? It’s far too early to tell."

    It obviously won't be Bulldozer unless you're talking about the already existing GF 32nm process. GF28nm is going to be bulk only, and it'll be an iteration of bulldozer that appears on 22nm.
  • HobHayward - Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - link

    "The acquisition gave GlobalFoundries a 300mm fab in Singapore."

    Pretty sure you meant 300nm... :P
  • LuxFestinus - Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - link

    @HobHayward
    Quote:
    "Pretty sure you meant 300nm... :P"

    Well I am absolutely sure that they meant 300mm as in wafer size. Look it up if you don't believe me. 300mm wafer sizes are cheaper in the long run with economies of scale over 200mm wafers. This is why this is important.
  • Penti - Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - link

    That site was also already at AMD APM tech/process and was already manufacturing AMD processors since years ago.

    Global Foundries are some years of at manufacturing GPUs though. AMDs chipsets and GPUs are still manufactured at TSMC because it's designed to be fabbed there, are at the right process nodes already, has lines, tools and all setup already and are at the cutting edge for those products and AMD needs most of GF's capacity for processors, obviously they fab a lot of other things now too. In two or three years though they might manufacture GPUs and such. When it comes to consoles they use IBM Power processors atm and those are generally fabbed by IBM themselves in New York not that far from where AMD planned there factory, the CELL are fabbed by "STI" in Japan though. But the tech for that factory is supplied by IBM and Toshiba. IBM tried to manufacture GPUs in the past tough. They don't have a lot to chose from, it's basically Power and IBM or x86 and Intel. ARM and MIPS are reserved to the portable consoles today. Next gen GPUs are of course limited to AMD/ATi and NVIDIA atm. Where they are fabbed are another matter though. The Singapore site (Former CSM) is at 45nm atm. But can also fab at a larger process. ATi/AMD is at 40nm at TSMC (or a half node). It's also designed to be fabbed there. They don't just manufacture for AMD there at the Singapore plant because for the Chartered legacy. They build in order to be able to fab for others now though, and other products like GPUs, but that won't happen till 28nm I would think.
  • veri745 - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - link

    300mm is the actual diameter of the wafer, not the size of the process that goes on it.
  • dew111 - Tuesday, June 8, 2010 - link

    "gave GlobalFoundries a 300mm fab in Singapore. The move wasn’t about taking out a competitor, but rather acquiring a customer base on aging manufacturing processes and giving them the option of migrating to smaller transistor geometries"

    He did mean nm, the passage refers to an aging 300nm process, and customers which can upgrade to newer ones. The passage also refers to the 300mm value as a transistor geometry size, which clearly indicates that he meant nm. LuxFestinus is correct in that 300mm wafers are better than 200mm, but GF already had 300mm wafer production in Dresden.
  • Penti - Sunday, June 13, 2010 - link

    Please there is no 30cm transistors. No 300nm for digital integrated circuits since a decade. Certainly not at a 300mm plant.

    Chartereds Fab was already on AMD APM process an collaborated with AMD and IBM (among others) and already produced AMD cpus since a few years back, which is why they have been bought.

    CSM's fab had no such humongous process get over yourself, was certainly not locked to any particular node size, as I indicate they did manufacture down to 45nm. Many of AMDs 65nm processors is from there. They also produced at higher processes as they also had older 200mm plants. Also probably manufacturing semiconductors for other needs.

    By doing that they also gained Chartereds other clients as customers, among like companies such as Broadcom and Qualcomm. Which also will be interested in capacity at Dresden or NY. Or at a upgraded Singapore plant.

    My point though, AMD already utilized the 300mm fab in Singapore for processor manufacturing and GF wants to become a multivendor foundry. As they where experiencing problems it only came naturally. Also Asia is where most of the foundries are located any way. They will certainly upgrade the Singapore plant, they need the capacity it isn't about buying a customer stock. The 200mm fabs even have life in them as they do a lot of CMOS and RF and mixed signal ICs. The 300mm fab has a capacity of 50 000 wafers and that plant has been rated down to 40nm. It's a plant that handles SOI and technically is about equivalent to IBMs own plant. Of course allowing the tools to be compatible with plants also in Germany and NY it means the chips can be fabbed there to, but they desperately need that 50 000 wafers capacity in order to handle those existing customers. The fab was already at AMD/GFs APM process, it's not 32/28nm compatible as is though, but neither is any other plant.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now