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GREAT-Terry
Is TSMC the only foundry capable for the 28nm and 3-D packaging together? If ...
resistion
Could the interposer become a standard part of tsmc's 28 nm back end? If so, ...
TSMC's A6 processor to respin, says report
Peter Clarke
8/12/2011 6:16 AM EDT
LONDON – Foundry chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) – said to have started trial manufacturing of the ARM-based A6 processor for Apple – will put the IC through another tape-out for the "production design" in the first quarter of 2012, according to the Taiwan Economic News. As a result of the respin of the design, production volumes of the A6 will not be available from TSMC until the second quarter of 2012 at the soonest, the report said referencing unnamed industry sources.
The A6, rumored to be a quad-core design, was expected to debut inside a yet more powerful iPad 3 tablet computer from Apple, which some thought could arrive this year.
One potential reason of the respin is that TSMC plans to use 3-D stacking technologies along with its 28-nm manufacturing process in the production of the A6 for Apple. The use of a specialized silicon interposer and bump-on-trace interconnect may produce specific requirements in the main processor die.
Samsung has been the sole supplier of the previous iterations of the Apple processor, the A4 and the A5. However, the use of company-proprietary packaging technology would count against the possibility that Apple is seeking to qualify both Samsung and TSMC and operate them as mutual second-sources.
A major reason why TSMC has not handled Apple's processor manufacturing to date is because the company has effectively been sold out with existing customers such as Nvidia and Qualcomm, the report said.
TSMC now expects manufacturing capacity utilization to dip to 92 percent in the third quarter, from 99 percent, and has forecast that its combined revenue will drop by between 6 and 8 percent sequentially in the third quarter, normally a quarter when sales are growing.
Packaging house Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. partnered with TSMC to develop the 3-D chip packaging technology and so should benefit from the A6 processor business in 2012, the report said.
Related links and articles:
Samsung, TSMC and the A6: not OR but AND?
TSMC test runs Apple processor, says report
Samsung takes Apple fight to ITC
Setting the record straight on the Intel-TSMC 3-D 'race'
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rfab
8/12/2011 7:36 AM EDT
Shameless ah, Taiwan's Economic Daily what these shameless old disease relapse, these guys from the ATOM to INTEL CHIPEST, to the APPLE A5, then A6, the guy is really shameless
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rfab
8/12/2011 7:47 AM EDT
Endless holidays in the news pushed up shares in the context of South Korea, Taiwan DRAM eliminated Get out
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resistion
8/12/2011 8:50 AM EDT
3D stacking? with what other dies?
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p_g
8/12/2011 11:06 AM EDT
With stacked memories.
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resistion
8/12/2011 3:25 PM EDT
Any stacked memory dies would have to be compatible with the new package, but we did not hear about adjustments by them.
For Xilinx, FPGA dies were side by side on same interposer, but all the dies were made at tsmc, as well as interposer.
I don't know why Apple and tsmc would take such risk so soon. I think the 28 nm yield is hard enough already, and could be the real issue.
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p_g
8/14/2011 5:32 PM EDT
Not sure if package need major change, yes some internal changes are required.
Regarding risk, probably its worth taking that risk since stcked dioe give benifit of speed and power which will give them market edge. Even if they fail for first time atleast they will be ahead of market by one step to implement this.
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hm
8/12/2011 9:04 AM EDT
As Apple do not have much competition to fear in Tablet market, they will take more time and refine products. As soon as their market share dwindle, they will introduce new A6.
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Helicopter
8/12/2011 9:21 AM EDT
It takes years to prepare a supplier.
Custom Chip manufacturing is not as easy.
Apple should be worried.
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p_g
8/12/2011 11:08 AM EDT
I don't think Apple should be worried. They are still relying on Samsung, just using TSMC as second source to keep pressure on Samsung for low price. Pretty standard technique almost every big fabless company uses this trick.
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dylan.mcgrath
8/12/2011 1:24 PM EDT
@p_g- But can Apple continue to rely on Samsung for producing its processors while at the same time engaging in a legal battle with the South Korean firm over the Galaxy Tab? Seems like something's gotta give.
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p_g
8/14/2011 5:26 PM EDT
@dylan; I agree with you. Samsung has good revenue in fab coming from Apple. But key thing is if Apple withdrew then can Samsung keep its fab busy? I don't think Samsung fab want to give up just for Galaxy at the same time Apple is preparing for worst case too.
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hm
8/12/2011 2:30 PM EDT
This may be another good example of how Apple respect its designers. Design team of A6 may need more time to optimize product and specification and they may need one or more run. It is is not good practice to fix product launch date before design team agrees to design progress. One wrong example from Apple was iPhone4 Antenna. They should have given more time to RF/Microwave engineers for testing and refinement.
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resistion
8/12/2011 3:35 PM EDT
Last month NVIDIA reported pushing out its 28 nm GPU by a year. Could be same issue here: 28 nm yield.
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chipmonk
8/14/2011 1:53 PM EDT
3-d stack memory module integrated on an interposer w/ a CPU on the other side would definitely help both power consumption and bus throughput( shorter lengths ) in handheld systems.
Apple often takes leadership at the system integration level but is not known for sticking its neck out to the bleeding edge of component ( e,g. die ) technology. Indulging in 3-d stack memory ( wide I/O bus ) would require getting involved in Semiconductor Physics ? Does Apple have the manpower to handle these problems yet ?
What would be a Killer App for Apple to justify it ? TV in a Smart Phone ?
3-d stacking has issues. First heat dissipation ( so initial applications will not include the CPU ), then stress ( efect of flexing in through silicon vias affecting device performance, hence requiring wide keep - outs / die real estate ).
Perhaps right now Apple is just testing the waters and getting the Suppliers ready. Application in real systems will have to wait for 2 - 3 years.
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resistion
8/14/2011 8:25 PM EDT
Could the interposer become a standard part of tsmc's 28 nm back end? If so, Apple would not be the only beneficiary, but also Nvidia, Qualcomm, etc.
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GREAT-Terry
8/16/2011 5:19 AM EDT
Is TSMC the only foundry capable for the 28nm and 3-D packaging together? If yes, Apple doesn't have to worry anything about. They just need some more marketing work to extend the lifetime of iPad2. I still believe Apple can dominate the tablet market by next Q1. So, if TSMC can fix the issue in time while it leaves enough time for Apple to refine the product, the new iPad may be more sexy! BTW, it is not too long to wait from iPad2 ato iPad3 (at least I don't think so).
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