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Lcohen
Guest
Is there any way Globalfoundries can fix issues on 32 and 28nm in a timely fashion? Or is problem terminal and AMD has to move asap to TSMC?
I'm not aware of issues at GFI 32nm. The Llano chip is shipping in volumes so what exactly is the problem?
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AMD will never move completely away from TSMC, the GPU design team roots are too deep there. When Global has a competitive 28nm offering AMD will use it. TSMC is first source for EVERYBODY at 28nm, GFI will be second, UMC will be third, Samsung a distant fourth. 20nm is up for grabs and Intel MIGHT also be in the mix with 22nm.
An interesting note from my trip to Taiwan last week. Taiwan unemployment is at a record low. Scooters once again fill the streets of Hsinchu! TSMC will be passing out record bonuses shortly to a record amount of people. TSMC Fab expansions are ahead of schedule. The new Fab 15 in Taichung went up amazingly fast with equipment moving in later this year. When was the last time you saw a fab built ahead of schedule and under budget? Simply amazing! My kitchen remodel last year took the 3x the time and 2x the budget!
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View attachment 1393
AMD will never move completely away from TSMC, the GPU design team roots are too deep there. When Global has a competitive 28nm offering AMD will use it. TSMC is first source for EVERYBODY at 28nm, GFI will be second, UMC will be third, Samsung a distant fourth. 20nm is up for grabs and Intel MIGHT also be in the mix with 22nm.
An interesting note from my trip to Taiwan last week. Taiwan unemployment is at a record low. Scooters once again fill the streets of Hsinchu! TSMC will be passing out record bonuses shortly to a record amount of people. TSMC Fab expansions are ahead of schedule. The new Fab 15 in Taichung went up amazingly fast with equipment moving in later this year. When was the last time you saw a fab built ahead of schedule and under budget? Simply amazing! My kitchen remodel last year took the 3x the time and 2x the budget!
View attachment 1392
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Lcohen
Guest
Llano launch was delayed. AMD restructured wafer supply agreement in April because of wafer die problems at GF.GF just fired its top managers.
You asked about fixing the 32nm process. It is fixed, they are shipping in volumes. You should also know that the 32nm process is an AMD SOI process and has nothing to do with the 28nm HKMG process GFI licensed from IBM. Nobody is shipping 28nm in volumes yet so everybody is "fixing" things.
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Lcohen
Guest
On 32nm, they are shipping in volume. But I read - and am told - that yields are bad. If that isn't true, then why did AMD restructure the supply agreement? btw, they only restructured it for 2011 calendar year. Still doesn't answer the question about why management got blown out. And TSMC and others are sampling 28nm; don't know about GF. There may (or may not) be more to this story. I'd love to hear people's thoughts, without being rebuked for scanning news headlines. I don't necessarily believe everything I read and am trying to get at some approximation of truth.
Independent events. I remember water cooler chat on the new AMD/GF wafer deal a while back.
AMD had an "at cost" contract for GFI wafers as part of the fab spin-out deal. Generally when you contract for wafers there is quite a bit of negotiation which includes yield and quantities. Once you sign a contract you are bound to purchase some amount of wafers at a given price and it goes on your financial report. One theory is that the new deal took $$$$ off the AMD balance sheet to make them look more profitable. Buying good die at at a fixed price with no quantity contract would look good on paper. A financial type would have to comb through the actual agreement but that was one theory that made sense to us.
GF is private so their financials are closed so what do they care how it is structured? As long as AMD is a happy customer buying silicon. Anyone else know more than this?
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GloFo and 28 nm
I tried to get the PDK from GloFo. Multiple layers of NDAs and hierarchies of people. In the end, we gave up asking for it. Why won't a fab hand out their PDK with an NDA? As far as I can tell, there would be two reasons: a) they don't want to deal with startups (which I understand) or b) they don't have reliable data for a PDK. In either case they'll have to work on their customer-facing side.
I tried to get the PDK from GloFo. Multiple layers of NDAs and hierarchies of people. In the end, we gave up asking for it. Why won't a fab hand out their PDK with an NDA? As far as I can tell, there would be two reasons: a) they don't want to deal with startups (which I understand) or b) they don't have reliable data for a PDK. In either case they'll have to work on their customer-facing side.
Okay here is what I think. The GloFlo executives are very talented people from around the industry. GloFlo buy two lemons-AMD fabs and Chartered and make lemonade. There is much hype and everybody believe it. Now reality sets in and people get fired. Foundry business is all about cost. If governments subsidize and help GloFlo build fabs and make money it will work. If GloFlo cannot compete on TSMC prices it will not work. Same for Intel but they can lose money on foundry business and write it off easy.
Definitely lemonade, well played! Now that reality has set in GloFlo had better reel in expenses and get down to the business of manufacturing. The ARM partnership is key, in fact, why don't they buy ARM! Or at least an elbow or something. Own the physical IP part of ARM that make ARM cores rock. They must differentiate from cost or they will lose. TSMC owns economies of scale.