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Apple takes 20nm capacity from Nvidia, AMD

Kaapstad

Kaapstad

Kaapstad

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A8 will sell in millions


It looks like the TSMC deal with Apple might change a few things around for other big fabless companies. Traditionally Nvidia and AMD (ATI) were among the first companies to manufacture their GPUs on the smallest, most advanced manufacturing node. These companies need the performance and getting from a larger node to a smaller one, eg. from 28nm to 20nm, means a smaller die, less power, less heat and lower voltage for the product.

Last week Apple launched the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and as always these phones will sell like hot cakes. The community wanteda larger iPhone and they got it, but more importantly both phones and probably the next two iPads will end up with A8 20nm chips inside. Apple will sell tens of millions of these phones and tablets and 20nm A8 based devices will be fast. This puts a lot of pressure on companies such as Nvidia and AMD, that need a next generation manufacturing node for their graphics cards.

2014 will end without 20nm GPUs and our industry sources from multiple companies are confirming that Apple ate a lot of the manufacturing capacity. Qualcomm got a piece of action for its 20nm modems and there will be 20nm Qualcomm SoC launching rather soon, with the real ramp in early 2015.

Every new node is limited and usually expensive. Apple can get a really good deal as it will buy more wafers than anyone. Volume drives the price down. The remaining, usually very limited, capacity is expensive.

Apple used Samsung fabs in the past but Samsung simply didn’t fit Apple's needs anymore simply as TSMC was able to offer better yields. Samsung and Globalfoundries have promised that they might get to 14nm soon, but this remains to be seen.

It looks like Apple is the golden customer for just about any company in the world and it doesn’t have problems getting the attention it needs. This changes the world we knew it and helps Apple to have one of the best SoCs on the market, be the first company with a high-volume 20nm chip and instantly get ability to make and sell tens of millions of them.
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http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/35743-apple-takes-20nm-capacity-from-nvidia-amd
 
A 20nm chip that surpasses the ***p in consoles, running stuff at 1080p 60hz on a frigging phone.

They should be ashamed.

Offtopic, I know.
 
Consoles can use full APIs and they've only been out a year. It takes 2-3 years for development "best practice" to emerge and uplift the graphical baseline. Exceptions are titles like Gears of War, which was a tech brag with huge money and 1st-party support. Otherwise you get stuff like Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero and other nogames for year 1 and 2.
 
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Here's to hoping the IP6 flops like a pancake, as it should.

Maybe Applefans will realise it offers literally nothing over their IP5(s) and they could have had what's being offered now 2 years ago on a Windows or Android platform. The new iPhone does not need a 20nm process heart, they will work perfectly well on hardware that is years old, which coincidentally matches the rest of the technology the phone offers. Trust Apple to use cutting edge technology to run yesterdays news.

Apples asking price will no doubt be absolutely obscene to boot.
 
humbug said:
There is an answer to this, what they are probably doing now, stick with 28nm and then go 20nm / 16nm with Global Foundries / Samsung once they are ready.

If this is what it takes for Nvidia and AMD not have to fight with Apple over wafers then i'm willing to wait.

Stuff TSMC and Apple. lets just be patient :)
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Apple will just barge in and buy up all the wafers of whoever has the best process, GF's 20nm has the same problems as TSMC and they have no 16nm.
 
You've got to laugh, £2021 all in for a decent 2 year contract. For what, a phone that's 20% faster and still a pile of dust. I cant help but think what could have been had the gpu companies been able to go 20nm, then i think to myself, or would they have been greedy and done what theyve done anyway and release 20nm in 2015
 
I'm in no rush, there's no game what challenges my 780ti. i'll probably skip the 880 and see what comes after.
 
This is a story that was being run maybe over a year ago originally and multiple times since, it's been mentioned in multiple threads, dedicated and threads on the general next gen in which this was pointed out multiple times as one of the reasons as a delay towards 20nm.

Apple signing up with TSMC was know 18 months ago or so and the reason for 20nm delay for a year or more has been known to be because Apple were becoming effectively a preferred customer by being a bigger customer.

Apple have since secured a second sourcing agreement with Samsung and GloFo using the same process at 14nm and likely beyond.

It's pretty likely that Apple will ditch TSMC after they've moved to Samsung/GloFo. The second sourcing being something TSMC don't offer(it's about secured supply if, an earthquake, or strikes, overthrown government, war happens, having fabs in an entirely different region/area which is extremely unlikely to have the same issues at the same time, TSMC don't offer that).
 
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