AMD Artic Islands at TSMC, why not GloFo?

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Evleos

Member
Jan 23, 2004
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It seems like the next GCN will be, like its forebearers, manufactured at TSMC, c.f. http://wccftech.com/amd-arctic-islands-next-generation-graphics-16-nm-finfet-tsmc/. This all the while AMD uses GloFo for their APUs.

I assume there would be some gains for AMD if they were able to target a single node pr generation. Instead, GCN has to target both GloFo and TSMC. If they only targeted GloFo, possible benefits would be:

- Fewer issues fulfilling their wafer supply agreement with GloFo
- Not having to port GCN from TSMC to GloFo
- Being able to optimize GCN more towards a single node
- More experience with the targeted node

Obviously, these and other pros do not outweigh the cons, as AMD is again using both GloFo and TSMC. However, what are these cons; why are they insisting on using TSMC for their GPUs?
 
T

tential

Diamond Member
May 13, 2008
7,348
642
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I wouldn't obviously say the pros outweigh the cons. Businesses make mistakes all the time they aren't as perfect as people make them out to be.
 
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monstercameron

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2013
3,818
1
0
Evleos said:
It seems like the next GCN will be, like its forebearers, manufactured at TSMC, c.f. http://wccftech.com/amd-arctic-islands-next-generation-graphics-16-nm-finfet-tsmc/. This all the while AMD uses GloFo for their APUs.

I assume there would be some gains for AMD if they were able to target a single node pr generation. Instead, GCN has to target both GloFo and TSMC. If they only targeted GloFo, possible benefits would be:

- Fewer issues fulfilling their wafer supply agreement with GloFo
- Not having to port GCN from TSMC to GloFo
- Being able to optimize GCN more towards a single node
- More experience with the targeted node

Obviously, these and other pros do not outweigh the cons, as AMD is again using both GloFo and TSMC. However, what are these cons; why are they insisting on using TSMC for their GPUs?
Click to expand...

because glofo is very unreliable, read up on krishna & wichita...
 
railven

railven

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2010
6,604
561
126
monstercameron said:
because glofo is very unreliable, read up on krishna & wichita...
Click to expand...

I don't think I've ever read a positive article about Global Foundries when it comes to AMD. It seems the WSA is one hell of a noose around AMD's neck.

Has that agreement paid off at all?
 
D

dark zero

Platinum Member
Jun 2, 2015
2,655
140
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Reading TSMC are not good news too... Both are so unreliable right now... AMD must be missing their own fabs...
 
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monstercameron

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2013
3,818
1
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railven said:
I don't think I've ever read a positive article about Global Foundries when it comes to AMD. It seems the WSA is one hell of a noose around AMD's neck.

Has that agreement paid off at all?
Click to expand...
WSA is mutually beneficial. Pay for an alotment and if you can't use em all pay for the excess.

dark zero said:
Reading TSMC are not good news too... Both are so unreliable right now... AMD must be missing their own fabs...
Click to expand...
tsmc is very reliable, dont let the qualcomm incident color your opinion of the fab that nvidia also uses.
 
A

Abwx

Lifer
Apr 2, 2011
11,837
4,790
136
monstercameron said:
WSA is mutually beneficial. Pay for an alotment and if you can't use em all pay for the excess.


tsmc is very reliable, dont let the qualcomm incident color your opinion of the fab that nvidia also uses.
Click to expand...

Currently GF is no more asking money for the excess demand, as for TSMC one can be sure that they did offer decent pricings to lure customers and fill their capacity given that they lost some Qualcomm orders..

While securing a portion of Apple's A9 chip orders, TSMC with its 16nm FinFET node has also obtained orders from AMD, Avago, Broadcom, HiSilicon Technologies, LG Electronics, MediaTek, Nvidia and Xilinx. The foundry is looking to aggressively ramp up its market share in the FinFET segment, the sources indicated.


However, TSMC failed to maintain orders for Qualcomm's flagship mobile chips. Qualcomm has placed orders for its next-generation Snapdragon 820 series with Samsung Electronics, which will use its 14nm FinFET process to manufacture the chips, the sources said.
Click to expand...

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20150824PD205.html
 
A

Abwx

Lifer
Apr 2, 2011
11,837
4,790
136
AnandThenMan said:
Because they suck.
Click to expand...

Process wise their 28nm is much superior to TSMC s, this latter slaughtered AMD s Kabini s perf/Watt at the rate of 30% higher power comsumption, to the point that they had to spec it 25W (at 2GHz) instead of the projected 15W that came one year later thanks to GF.
 
S

Silverforce11

Lifer
Feb 19, 2009
10,457
10
76
Interesting why Apple & Qualcomm jump ship to Samsung (which is their main rival!!) instead of TSMC, whats going on there?
 
cbn

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
12,968
221
106
Silverforce11 said:
Interesting why Apple & Qualcomm jump ship to Samsung (which is their main rival!!) instead of TSMC, whats going on there?
Click to expand...

Wasn't the Samsung process (which Global Foundry is supposed to use) claimed to be superior to TSMC process?
 
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Abwx

Lifer
Apr 2, 2011
11,837
4,790
136
Samsung absolutely need some customers to share the costs, and they have not a clients portfolio as enhanced as TSMC, i guess that they are selling at close to production cost..
 
ShintaiDK

ShintaiDK

Lifer
Apr 22, 2012
20,378
145
106
Silverforce11 said:
Interesting why Apple & Qualcomm jump ship to Samsung (which is their main rival!!) instead of TSMC, whats going on there?
Click to expand...

Apple jumped ship with GloFo.

TSMC is now 30% A9 and 100% A9X. Samsung is 70% A9.

monstercameron said:
relative to intel and samsung?...this suckitube/suckiness is hard to quantify.
Click to expand...

Even Apple ditched them with the A9. Because they couldnt get yield up. And thats a huge revenue loss.
 
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