Intel to open fabs to other companies?

[brybir]

Interesting article:

http://www.techworld.com.au/article/416115/intel_tests_foundry_waters


Could have interesting impact in a wide range of sectors although I wonder if they will let competitors come in (or whether competitors would want to come in).

 

[Khato]

Well, one devious, scheming way to look at it would be that it makes perfect sense for Intel to fabricate any and all products that don't compete with their own products as it would reduce demand and profit at the pure foundry players. So long as Intel has adequate capacity running more product through the fabs equates to more profit for them, and at the same time they'd be slowly strangling the foundries of profits that they need in order to keep from falling yet further behind.

 

[alent1234]

PC market is mature and intel will have a lot of extra capacity going forward

their business has always been manufacturing and design of CPU's was just icing on the cake

 

[grkM3]

pilldriver inside lol

 

[brybir]

PC market is mature and intel will have a lot of extra capacity going forward

their business has always been manufacturing and design of CPU's was just icing on the cake

That is like saying General Motors business is manufacturing rather than design of vehicles...when in reality they are both critical components that would not exist without the other.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

My father lives down in Arizona and I will talking with him last night about this very thing; which companies might take advantage if we openned the doors to building anything for anyone. I think it would be interesting to see would take advantage of our manufacturing. Think about a company like nVidea if we were to contract out to build their GPUs? How about the components for TVs for Samsung, Visio or Toshiba?

 

[Arachnotronic]

My father lives down in Arizona and I will talking with him last night about this very thing; which companies might take advantage if we openned the doors to building anything for anyone. I think it would be interesting to see would take advantage of our manufacturing. Think about a company like nVidea if we were to contract out to build their GPUs? How about the components for TVs for Samsung, Visio or Toshiba?

Isn't Intel's dexterity in the fab world due at least in part to the fact that it only needs to build its own products and not service a bunch of other designs?

 

[Idontcare]

Think about a company like nVidea if we were to contract out to build their GPUs?

That would be a little bit evil though, wouldn't it?

Making sure AMD was screwed coming and going D:

That said, I am a free-market kind of guy, so I say "do it" 😉

 

[MaxPayne63]

Imagine all the heads that would explode on the internet if Radeons were made in Intel's fabs.

 

[LoneNinja]

Imagine all the heads that would explode on the internet if Radeons were made in Intel's fabs.

What if AMD processors get made by Intel lmao

 

[Smartazz]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the cost of each new node is increasing considerably. If costs continue to rise, it will probably make sense for Intel to open its doors. This way they can better cover the R&D costs of their fabs and other companies can use Intel's superior process technology. The only problem I see with this is that Intel will eventually become the only choice to fab with if other fabs don't have the R&D money to continue their process shrinks.

 

[RavenSEAL]

pilldriver inside lol

That made me lol :thumbsup:

 

[Arachnotronic]

That would be a little bit evil though, wouldn't it?

Making sure AMD was screwed coming and going D:

That said, I am a free-market kind of guy, so I say "do it" 😉

Not a smart move, since Intel's looking to get their MIC stuff into the HPC space to go head-to-head with Tesla.

 

[krumme]

Good news.
Intel stuff is to expensive for the future. A look into my new HP DM1 media playing machine, viewing the construction simplicity and just tiny, tiny, cheap, cheap TSMC stuff - 45nm is small enough 28nm can wait till its cheaper..., is enough to convince me that business can not continue as it used to.
Cost needs to be shared.
Intel needs to open its fabs more. Redefine its business model.

 

[gorobei]

intel needs help to pay off the new fabs, so going foundry is fine while it is their choice.

But the real question is what would happen if the FTC decided intel became a monopoly and forced intel to split the design from manufacturing?

intel's main strengths are their control of x86 and the premium pricing/profits that comes from the exclusive licensing. That windfall profit goes right back into R&D to maintain the manufacturing edge. If intel's fabs were forced to charge intel-chip design division the same pricing as open foundries, could that profitability remain?

 

[Olikan]

IIRC, intel fabs were already open... just the 22nm didn't

but just nobody wants to use it 😛

Think about a company like nVidea if we were to contract out to build their GPUs?

LOL, after killing the chipset line of nvidia, creating an awesome hpc gpu card and an atom soc that compete with arm?

damm....this make me LOL very hard

 

[IntelUser2000]

But the real question is what would happen if the FTC decided intel became a monopoly and forced intel to split the design from manufacturing?

I think their greatest strength is that they are an IDM. The process technology division also benefits from that. If they are split, neither might do too well, turning them into an average foundry.

 

[nyker96]

yes would be interesting if piledriver gets build at intel. well they wouldn't allow it or will they!?

 

[grkM3]

samsung makes chips for other companies,like the cpu in the iphone was built by samsung,kinda sucks for them when they know what the next iphone is going to get and they can be one step ahead with there samsung droid cells.

I can see intel using there mature 32nm buildings to make chips for others and staying ahead of the curb using there newer fabs for them selves

 

[taltamir]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the cost of each new node is increasing considerably. If costs continue to rise, it will probably make sense for Intel to open its doors. This way they can better cover the R&D costs of their fabs and other companies can use Intel's superior process technology. The only problem I see with this is that Intel will eventually become the only choice to fab with if other fabs don't have the R&D money to continue their process shrinks.

that just about sums up what intel must be thinking.

 

[brybir]

that just about sums up what intel must be thinking.

The only issue here is that Intel does not have the capacity right now or in the near future to be the worlds only foundry. They have impressive technology but are relatively new to the "multiple customers" approach that TSMC and UMC have had to deal with.

Adding customers that have other complex IC (for example Nvidia) and making them happy in volume versus making some FPGA kits for a few small companies is a night and day difference. I think in the long run this could cause some consolidation among the fabrication companies (moreso than there already is) but I don't think it is reasonable that Intel could become the only contract manufacturer in the next decade. They don't have the capacity, the experience, or the ability to scale that quickly at the newer process notes.

That is not to say it could not be the case later on, but for at least the next decade, is very unlikely.

 

[taltamir]

The only issue here is that Intel does not have the capacity right now or in the near future to be the worlds only foundry.

with each customer they get more money, money they can use to build more foundries.
Its not like these sort of things happen overnight.

but I don't think it is reasonable that Intel could become the only contract manufacturer in the next decade.

Me neither, but I am saying that they want to try to gobble up as much marketshare as they can get away with.

 

[brybir]

That would be a little bit evil though, wouldn't it?

Making sure AMD was screwed coming and going D:

That said, I am a free-market kind of guy, so I say "do it" 😉

I still think in the end AMD is going to get bought up by one of the other big players, and who knows, someday even Radeons could be getting made in an Intel fab. I have no basis for this beyond rampant speculation, but a part of me thinks that the new CEOs goal is to shed the crap, start showing steady profit in some core areas, give a good outlook, and then put up the company for sale on solid terms.

 

[taltamir]

I still think in the end AMD is going to get bought up by one of the other big players, and who knows, someday even Radeons could be getting made in an Intel fab. I have no basis for this beyond rampant speculation, but a part of me thinks that the new CEOs goal is to shed the crap, start showing steady profit in some core areas, give a good outlook, and then put up the company for sale on solid terms.

From what I have read the new CEO is there to refocus the company into cellphones as a competitor to ARM.

 

[khon]

Honestly, they really should.

Something that is probably not common knowledge, is that logic manufacturers like Intel tend to have a lot of excess capacity in their fabs.

Why is that ? Because logic is very demanding from a lithographical standpoint, so they need to constantly buy the latest tools. But logic doesn't actually require that much production, since the volume sold is much smaller than that for memory.

So they inevitably end up with a lot of state of the art tools, that are not even in use much of the time. If they could start using some of that spare capacity, it would make a lot of sense financially.