Globalfoundries more advanced than TSMC

[Idontcare]

Globalfoundries more advanced than TSMC, analyst says

Nevertheless, the Dresden fab is far from being outdated. The fab will probably being able to extend immersion lithography down to 28nm and perhaps even to 22nm. "In terms of technology, they are competitive for the next seven to eight years," Johnson said.

As a result of the tough competition against market leader Intel, AMD was forced to put major efforts to develop ways and methods to improve manufacturing efficiency. GF today greatly benefits from this legacy. "They probably have the best process control capability in the industry," Johnson summed up. "TSMC better should look over its shoulder."

http://www.eetimes.com/news/se...l;?articleID=218900235

The analyst is kinda vague on the details but it basically reflects the sentiments of the folks within the industry when it comes to the high-performance cmos segment.

One thing not addressed by the commentary though is cost...competitive foundry offerings do not exist by technology advantage alone - it is not a "performance at any cost" environment.

A significant number of foundered IC designs simply need "good enough" process technology to function as needed in the market but if their price-point isn't below a maximum threshold then the product itself simply can't exist in the market. (no one buys $2000 GPS tom-toms, or $1000 cellphones, etc) This fact on the ground is part of the reason why ~75% of TSMC's revenue comes from IC's produced on 65nm and older process tech.

 

[Genx87]

Isnt Global foundaries simply AMDs manufacturing split into a seperate company? It shouldnt be surprising it is more advanced. I'd hope it was!

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: Genx87
Isnt Global foundaries simply AMDs manufacturing split into a seperate company? It shouldnt be surprising it is more advanced. I'd hope it was!

AMD pulled a 'switcheroo' with financial backing from the UAE.

In exchange for a (large - over $600 million IIRC) lump-sum of cash a spin off called Advanced Technology Investment Company ("Global Foundries") was established - the UAE owns 62% (+/-) with AMD owning the remainder. Here's an Anand story about ATIC.

The UAE gained additional ownership in the 'new' AMD chip company, too. I believe they own around 20% of AMD now (up from something like 6-7% previously).

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
AMD pulled a 'switcheroo' with financial backing from the UAE.

In exchange for a (large - over $600 million IIRC) lump-sum of cash a spin off called Advanced Technology Investment Company ("Global Foundries") was established - the UAE owns 62% (+/-) with AMD owning the remainder. Here's an Anand story about ATIC.

The UAE gained additional ownership in the 'new' AMD chip company, too. I believe they own around 20% of AMD now (up from something like 6-7% previously).

ATIC is not the spin off company, they are a government agency of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They were the ones who invested in AMD, and subsequently GF.

 

[MODEL3]

My faith in GF's capability to deliver on its promises, is reminding me what I read in penny-arcade awhile ago about their faith in Peter Molyneux to deliver on his promises:

Peter Molyneux has no credit with me - he must always pay in advance, cash only. I am completely impervious to him, so when he says that he's invented some kind of digital boy this firm assertion is refracted into harmless light. Illusions of the kind he proposes are tremendously fragile - it's hard enough to maintain them in raw text, without the idiosyncrasies of the nested recognition systems in play with Milo. Please understand: I love the future, and I long to live there. I want very much to simulate a cognizant digital imp. But this man has broken my heart so many times that it can no longer contain love

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/6/3/

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Martimus
ATIC is not the spin off company, they are a government agency of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They were the ones who invested in AMD, and subsequently GF.

They have an interesting website: http://www.advancedtechnologyic.com/

Established in 2008, the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) is a specialist investment company mandated to focus primarily on the global advanced technology sector. ATIC?s sole shareholder is the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

But it was Mubadala that made the direct investments into AMD. One could easily and legitimately argue Mubadala and ATIC are basically the same entity given their government's organization and involvement in both, but technically they are separate business entities to my knowledge.

AMD [NYSE: AMD] and the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) of Abu Dhabi today announced the creation of a U.S.-headquartered, leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing company to address growing demand for independent, leading-edge foundry production capabilities. The new global company, to be temporarily called ?The Foundry Company?, will serve this need by combining advanced process technology, industry-leading manufacturing facilities and aggressive plans to expand its global capacity footprint.

At the same time, the Mubadala Development Company will increase its current investment in AMD to 19.3 percent on a fully diluted basis.

http://www.mubadala.ae/en/medi...facturing-company.html

 

[postmortemIA]

TSMC makes money.

 

[ronnn]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
TSMC makes money.

Sounds like a new holy war. Except of course Dubai isn't not making money.

 

[netxzero64]

TSMC is summing up big bucks already so lets wait and see who will take the lead... and if TSMC will get kicked out by GF if it goes full operational status

 

[Keysplayr]

Sounds to me that GF is just trying to drag some biz away from TSMC. Buy an analyst a cup of coffee these days, and you can have yourself a positive review!! J/K.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Keysplayr
Sounds to me that GF is just trying to drag some biz away from TSMC. Buy an analyst a cup of coffee these days, and you can have yourself a positive review!! J/K.

You'd be surprised how much a cup of coffee can cost these days. In any event though isn't it kind of nice to see that even the new GF "gets" it when it comes to marketing better than the old AMD ever did? It actually instills confidence in me to see that the GF management at least knows the game they need to play to be competitive in their industry...AMD never gave me that confidence when it came to their ideas of marketing. (F1 racing? really? that's a big mover in asia and n america markets?)

 

[Keysplayr]

AMD marketing? It's all word of mouth when it comes to the end users. All the marketing is probably spent on OEMs. I cannot remember EVER seeing a AMD commercial for their processors. I'm sure there were a couple, but I missed em.

 

[Idontcare]

Only AMD cpu commercial I recall ever seeing was the train one, and that was from about 10yrs ago IIRC.