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resistion
I think then we agree more bins would be better, right? So foundry customers ...
resistion
Intel Silverthorne had several speed bins and very small die size. Not typical ...
Reports: AMD cancels Globalfoundries 28-nm APUs
Peter Clarke
11/23/2011 6:16 AM EST
LONDON – Microprocessor vendor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has decided to cancel APUs that Globalfoundries Inc. was set to make for it on 28-nm process technology, according to online reports.
Instead AMD (Sunnyvale, Calif.) will start afresh using the 28-nm gate-last high-k metal-gate manufacturing process technology from alternative foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan), the reports said.
It is speculated that the reason for the move is that the 28-nm process at Globalfoundries (Milpitas, Calif.) will only be ready for volume production in mid-2012, which would give the planned processors only six months in the market. An alternative view is that low-yields on the 28-nm process have been at the root of failed negotiations on the manufacturing contract.
If true, the move would be a major blow to Globalfoundries, which was originally created by the spinning off of AMD manufacturing facilities. The plan was to use AMD has an "anchor" customer while ramping up a number of others in foundry mode.
However, AMD has been moving its manufacturing towards TSMC for some time. A change of management at Globalfoundries, implemented in the summer, was said to be related to problems with 32-nm chip yield which had also led to a rewritten supply contract so that AMD only paid for good die.
The risk to Globalfoundries is that it could lose its main customer before it has attracted enough other customers to fill its fabs. Meanwhile TSMC, the world's largest foundry, is a strong competitor, and high volume chipmaker Samsung is also seeking to get into the foundry business and all this at a time when most industry watchers are predicting 2012 to be low-growth year for the chip industry.
Related links and articles:
http://news.techeye.net/chips/amd-kills-off-globalfoundries-made-28nm-apus
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/106217-manufacturing-bombshell-amd-cancels-28nm-apus-starts-from-scratch-at-tsmc
TSMC: 28-nm technology, demand 'on plan'
Foundries have 28-nm yield issues, say execs
Analyst: Yield drove Globalfoundries change
Why did AMD-GF ink new wafer deal?
Globalfoundries appoints interim CEO
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resistion
11/23/2011 8:18 AM EST
wow and ow
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ssatish
11/23/2011 12:01 PM EST
Rory Read sure is making true to his commitment to turn things around at AMD. After last quarter with lower earnings due to GF problems, this was bound to happen
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wilber_xbox
11/23/2011 1:45 PM EST
"...low-yields on the 28-nm process have been at the root of failed negotiations on the manufacturing contract..." I think we should all learn a thing or two from Intel. How's TSMC fairing in the yield for 28nm and 32nm?
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resistion
11/24/2011 3:50 AM EST
I don't think you can conclude anything from Intel's alleged high yields, since they have product bins (poorer performing chips on the wafer go into low-end products instead of chucked), while memory makers and foundries don't.
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GroovyGeek
11/25/2011 1:46 PM EST
So you are saying that foundries producing MPUs and memories all target them to a single bin ahd chuck everything else? Yeah, sure...
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resistion
11/26/2011 2:26 AM EST
Most foundry made products do not have benefit of speed bins. More bins, less to chuck.
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Tommy_Hater
11/26/2011 2:51 PM EST
resistion: U seems to have the ability to talk crap with lot of confidence! U have no idea how foundry wafer sort works.
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resistion
11/27/2011 1:35 PM EST
I see Xilinx has 4 speed grades.
Otherwise the customer needs to accept a wide GHz range.
And if the die size is too large, the same number of lost dies would be a larger yield loss.
It is the customer's responsibility in the end.
But lack of customer consistency would mean different yields per customer.
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resistion
11/27/2011 2:14 PM EST
Intel Silverthorne had several speed bins and very small die size. Not typical for foundry-made, where usually the customer designs a few trillion transistors covering 500-600 mm2.
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resistion
11/27/2011 2:42 PM EST
I think then we agree more bins would be better, right? So foundry customers should hopefully start using speed bins explicitly in their product line definitions, just like Intel CPUs. The end user would be less unclear about what he/she is getting.
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chipmonk
11/23/2011 1:49 PM EST
ouch !
But hardly a surprise. In the top echelons of Global Foundriesthere are far too many from Fabs that have failed to keep up and then disappeared. None from hardcore successes like Intel or even Samsung. Glo Fo VP of R&D has just a BS that too in Chem E ! Selected by Chair of Glo Fo board also from the same US based IDM that in the last 20 years have managed to sink from no. 3 in the world to no. 20+ through poor technical & managerial decisions !
A tendency at Glo Fo ( unlike TSMC ) to depend on others like Consortia & IBM as mentor & pathfinder when the latter itself is now just a shadow of its past semiconductor depth. The result - snafu with the decision on to do HKMG Gate first ( led by IBM - just to look different from Intel ? ) at 32 nm and then find NOT scalable down to even the next node ( 28 nm ) !! Samsung was a part of the same Consortia (mis)led by IBM but saw the light and switched to Gate last - but not Glo Fo !
Glo Fo has gotten a lot of public money from NY State and there is a lot riding on them to get a competent Foundry going in the US ( before they xfer it all to Abu Dhabi ). Now they ought to get a winning Management with enough Techno Macho to justify it.
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docdivakar
11/25/2011 12:34 PM EST
@Chipmonk: some good points you raise in your analysis. Foundry utilization details was something GloFo never discussed in their technology day this fall. But they did make a point about diversification including AMS & MEMS business than digital / memory business dominancy.
MP Divakar
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resistion
11/23/2011 11:14 PM EST
I think Samsung should reconsider whether to sync their 28 nm high k process with GlobalFoundries.
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goafrit
11/23/2011 11:47 PM EST
This company will be bought over by Samsung within the next decade. AMD is not a living specie anymore.
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Jakobus
11/24/2011 6:38 AM EST
The story is partly wrong and exaggerated. Already months ago taiwanese media such as digitimes and commercial times reported that the chips are to be produced by TSMC and not Glofo. While Glofo is already busy with Llano and Trinity chips, TSMC also has not so much capacaties in 28nm for all its customers. Therefore, AMD is obiously shifting to more profitable graphic gpus. All in all, the story has little to do with Glofo or problems at AMD but with high demand for hardly available 28 nm products from TSMC.
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Jakobus
11/24/2011 6:58 AM EST
AMD simply decided to let produce TSMC more Radeon GPUs with high margins instead of low margin APUs because
the 40nm Bobacats are still selling very well. It has nothing to do with Glofo. Please, get it!
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Jakobus
11/24/2011 7:08 AM EST
http://www.acrossemi.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=35%3Aindustry&id=2132%3Atsmc-wins-orders-for-28nm-gpu-from-amd-says-paper&Itemid=75&lang=en
Here is the link. And if you read the articles from Semiaccurate and Extremetech than you will see that it was no more than a (wrong) assumption that Glofo is intended to produce the chip. But this was not the case and now all this allegations have no foundation any more. The truth is totally different.
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