AMD hires outside fab to increase A64/Opteron production

[klah]

http://austin.bizjournals.com/...004/11/08/daily25.html
http://home.businesswire.com/p...005390&newsLang=en

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has entered into sourcing and manufacturing technology agreements with Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd.

Singapore-based Chartered, the world's third largest semiconductor company, will implement portions of AMD's automated precision manufacturing software and become an additional manufacturing source of AMD64 processors.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD, which has operations in Austin, is planning to have Chartered begin production of its processors in 2006. In the meantime, AMD is lining up additional capacity at its plant in Dresden, Germany, to expand the production of its Athlon 64 and Opteron processor-based systems.

Chartered will begin integrating APM into Fab 7, its 300mm wafer fabrication facility in Singapore, starting in the fourth quarter of 2004.

?Chartered can produce chips compatible with either the IBM or the AMD 90nm process in its Fab 7 in Singapore. This new facility, Chartered?s first 300mm fab, will begin pilot production later this quarter, and should be in full production by mid-2005. Chartered expects to have capacity in place for 9000 wafer starts per month by the end of 2005, and 15 000 WSPM twelve months later. It?s not at all clear how much, if any, of this capacity AMD will tap when its 90nm processors are fully qualified in Fab 7 at the end of 2005,? principal analyst with Insight 64 Nathan Brookwood wrote in his short report titled ?AMD Sets Sail on Chartered Waters?.

 

[MDE]

I wonder if chips made by Chartered will be better\worse overclockers. This just shows that AMD has demand for lots of AMD64 processors.

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: MDE
I wonder if chips made by Chartered will be better\worse overclockers. This just shows that AMD has demand for lots of AMD64 processors.

Id expect that they would in general be slightly poorer in the early stages. As we all no, chip manufacture is complicated and overclocking is never guarunteed. Once they work out any bugs in production, I think the overclocking will be comparable unless the quality of materials is significantly different to the other Fabs.