"Good luck on those price drops" - TSMC

[Lonyo]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/...age_of_28nm_Production_Capacities_Report.html

OK, so not an exact quote, but you get the idea.

The tight supply of chips made at TSMC utilizing 28nm technology is a result of both relatively low yields (which are gradually improving) and TSMC's reluctance to quickly boost manufacturing capacities "in order to maintain gross margins", reports DigiTimes web-site.
[...]

the shortage of 28nm manufacturing capacities will get lower at the end of the third quarter of 2012.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120405PD218.html

Qualcomm, in view of the shortage, has shifted some orders to United Microelectronics, but has been unable to meet its clients' demand for processors for smartphones and tablet PCs, the sources indicated.

 

[Nintendesert]

Good thing I got me a 28nm GPU on day 1!

 

[Stuka87]

Not surprised. Prices are going to remain high and supply is going to remain constrained.

 

[jpiniero]

Gotta churn out those iPhone 5 chips.

 

[Lyfer]

Gotta churn out those iPhone 5 chips.

Sadly thats probably not far from the truth. They are make a killing on mobile devices, who cares about the 0.5% of pc gamers?

 

[soccerballtux]

smart of them to not boost capacities, people want lower prices but that stuff is expensive.

surely GF can help out a bit? Seems like nobody gets anything made over there....

 

[Elfear]

Good thing I got me a 28nm GPU on day 1!

+1

Sounds like production will ramp up slowly. End of third quarter? Ouch.

 

[Ventanni]

This could be good for GF in the future.

 

[Mopetar]

Gotta churn out those iPhone 5 chips.

That's a possibility, especially if the device is coming out in the summer rather than in the fall. Apple has plenty of money to burn so it wouldn't surprise me if they were buying a lot of capacity. If supplies are tight and they want to move a lot of units, I wouldn't be surprised if they needed to start the production ramp early.

 

[zebrax2]

Huge loss for the consumers

 

[KingstonU]

When is Glo-Fo even going to start producing products to clients that are not AMD? Have they even got anything 28nm working yet?

 

[tviceman]

Gotta churn out those iPhone 5 chips.

What makes you think TSMC is manufacturing the iphone 5? Apple is still exclusively with samsung for the A5/A5X processor.

 

[tviceman]

Also, take this with a shot of tequila, but Nvidia may be looking at other fabs for future products as well. http://www.brightsideofnews.com/new...samsung-fab2c-ibm2c-globalfoundries-next.aspx They seem to be the most vocal about TSMC's pricing and wafer availability, so I'd think they would be at least shopping other opportunities.

 

[Obsoleet]

Sadly thats probably not far from the truth. They are make a killing on mobile devices, who cares about the 0.5% of pc gamers?

I don't. My 5870 is still going strong, and I'm awaiting the iPhone5.

 

[maniac5999]

Also, take this with a shot of tequila, but Nvidia may be looking at other fabs for future products as well. http://www.brightsideofnews.com/new...samsung-fab2c-ibm2c-globalfoundries-next.aspx They seem to be the most vocal about TSMC's pricing and wafer availability, so I'd think they would be at least shopping other opportunities.

lol, could you imagine if AMD had their GPUs fabbed at TSMC while Nvidia had theirs fabbed at GF? Oh the delicious irony.

 

[SirPauly]

Hehe, that would be ironic!

 

[Stuka87]

What makes you think TSMC is manufacturing the iphone 5? Apple is still exclusively with samsung for the A5/A5X processor.

I was just going to say the same thing. Unless Apple is switching fabs, the iPhone has nothing to do with TSMC.

 

[jpiniero]

I was just going to say the same thing. Unless Apple is switching fabs, the iPhone has nothing to do with TSMC.

There are plenty of rumors that Apple is considering that for the iPhone 5. More likely is that the production will be split. Apple really hates Samsung you know.

 

[Mopetar]

What makes you think TSMC is manufacturing the iphone 5? Apple is still exclusively with samsung for the A5/A5X processor.

I was just going to say the same thing. Unless Apple is switching fabs, the iPhone has nothing to do with TSMC.

The A5X would be entirely too impractical to put in their next phone. If the next iPhone isn't coming out until October again, there's a good chance that Apple will have a Cortex-A15 SoC to go along with it. I have a feeling the only reason that they came out with the A5X is that there wasn't enough time to get an A6 out or enough 28 nm production capacity to give them enough devices to keep up with demand.

There's no guarantee that they're going to go with TSMC, but it's certainly a possibility. Apple would be utterly stupid to not consider using them or ordering a few test wafers just to get a better idea of what they could expect to get or if using TSMC would be feasible. And even if things are pricey, Apple has the money if they think it gives them a leg up against the competition.

 

[tviceman]

The A5X would be entirely too impractical to put in their next phone. If the next iPhone isn't coming out until October again, there's a good chance that Apple will have a Cortex-A15 SoC to go along with it. I have a feeling the only reason that they came out with the A5X is that there wasn't enough time to get an A6 out or enough 28 nm production capacity to give them enough devices to keep up with demand.

There's no guarantee that they're going to go with TSMC, but it's certainly a possibility. Apple would be utterly stupid to not consider using them or ordering a few test wafers just to get a better idea of what they could expect to get or if using TSMC would be feasible. And even if things are pricey, Apple has the money if they think it gives them a leg up against the competition.

If iPhone 5 came out this fall and had a better processor than the iPad, that would be hilariously ironic. But regardless, what Apple does this fall would not affect 28nm production and supply TODAY.

 

[Lyfer]

TSMC makes me crave nachos, anyone else?

 

[Mopetar]

If iPhone 5 came out this fall and had a better processor than the iPad, that would be hilariously ironic. But regardless, what Apple does this fall would not affect 28nm production and supply TODAY.

Define better.

It will probably have a more modern CPU architecture (Cortex-A15) and higher clock speeds for its CPU cores, and maybe even a newer GPU architecture, but probably won't have as much GPU power overall. I also imagine that it will be fabbed on a 32 or 28 nm process.

Also, why would that be hilariously ironic?

If Apple wants to have another blowout quarter and beat their previous sales, they're going to need a lot of phones, and that means at lot of chips. That means that if they're using TSMC they would need to start ramping SoC production early in order to have enough parts. They might have have started producing final silicon yet, but could be buying up much of the additional capacity that TSMC will bring online over the next several months.

If TSMC continues to sell out their production capacity, they have no reason to lower the price.

 

[SickBeast]

If TSMC are going to be dogs like this then it's only a matter of time before someone else becomes the GPU manufacturer of choice.

 

[Mopetar]

If TSMC are going to be dogs like this then it's only a matter of time before someone else becomes the GPU manufacturer of choice.

Anyone else have a 28 nm process capable of producing GPUs in large volumes?

:hmm:

I guess TSMC doesn't have to do anything.

 

[SickBeast]

Can't Samsung, Globalfoundries, or IBM do it?