Global Foundries 7NM cancelled - AMD moves all 7NM production to TSMC

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

GF again fails:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13277/globalfoundries-stops-all-7nm-development
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/276169-amd-moves-all-7nm-cpu-gpu-production-to-tsmc

Hopefully AMD can get fully out of WSA now.

 

[Orcvader]

So not a technical issue but more on the financial side? And both 5nm and 3nm also seems to be cancelled? 14nm may be popular now due to maturity/cost but it's only a couple of more years before designers will want something better.

Even then, they've invested so much into 7nm... they should at least complete that and get that rolling.

And it'll mean less competition with only TSMC and Samsung. Well there's Intel too but they only allow customers that won't directly compete with them...

 

[Aretak]

It was announced a month ago that their 7nm CPUs would be manufactured by TSMC only, so I imagine everybody involved has known for some time. In theory it's a shame to lose one of the only independent foundries and leave TSMC with a monopoly on that space, but GloFo were chuffing useless anyway. I assume this will release AMD from their agreement, given that GloFo are no longer holding up their end of the bargain. Finally getting what they've wanted all these years on that front if so.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

GF failed with their delayed and subpar 28NM process,and have cancelled 20NM,14NM and now 7NM. Their 14NM process was licensed from Samsung. I feel a tad sorry for IBM though.

It was announced a month ago that their 7nm CPUs would be manufactured by TSMC only, so I imagine everybody involved has known for some time. In theory it's a shame to lose one of the only independent foundries and leave TSMC with a monopoly on that space, but GloFo were chuffing useless anyway. I assume this will release AMD from their agreement, given that GloFo are no longer holding up their end of the bargain. Finally getting what they've wanted all these years on that front if so.

There is Samsung too AFAIK.

 

[stephenb]

This is a shame. I guess if there is less overall capacity to manufacture at 7nm we can look forward to higher prices than we might otherwise have had for cutting edge CPU's/GPU's/SoC's?

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Its why I said a while back I can't see 7NM Ryzen hitting 5GHZ,as at the very least AMD will probably want to prioritise yields. I have no issue with that as I rather they improve IF(and by extension latency),IPC,add more cores,etc.

 

[ltron]

This is a surprise, I'm glad AMD didn't put all their eggs in one basket otherwise they would have been stuffed.

 

[humbug]

Global Foundries strikes again, oh well at least this time they can't wreck AMD's plans while failing.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is why I told people to be wary of their claims. AMD going to TSMC should have hinted all was not right. IBM is in a spot of bother in 2020,onwards unless they stick to the modified SOI 12NM process GF provides,or go to TSMC 7NM.

 

[Beren]

I am glad to see AMD didn't have all their eggs in one basket - I hope GloFlo does make the profit they need to get into the 7nm game eventually, more foundries is good for everyone - but I am really glad that TSMC is going to enable AMD to hit the market with multiple 7nm products over the next 12 months.

"We have already taped out multiple 7nm products at TSMC, including our first 7nm GPU planned to launch later this year and our first 7nm server CPU that we plan to launch in 2019. " - Mark Papermaster

I wonder what the other products are that are already taped out at 7nm are. Interesting times ahead...

Another article has mentioned that TSMC might not be able to manufacture the volume needed at 7nm for Consumer silicon as Apple might have demands to meet as well... I don't know if that is true.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It could be quite possible we seem another 12NM refresh for Ryzen IMHO.

 

[Beren]

Anything is possible - There is a lot of Rumour about Picasso being a 12nm product for the next lot of APU's - the 2200 and 2400g have had a really strong uptake so that might make sense.

AMD are already pushing out some interesting semi-custom Zen+Vega designs it might make a lot of sense to push 12nm as a value semi-custom channel.

 

[NinjaCool]

So GlobalFoundries stumbled again... but at least it shouldn't impact AMD since TSMC was always supposed to be their main 7nm partner right from the start.

 

[Troezar]

Hmm I was hoping for 7nm Zen H1 next year...

 

[NinjaCool]

AMD have said GlobalFoundries won’t impact their roadmaps so let’s hope that turns out to be right.

Remember AMD has already taped out several 7nm products at TSMC, including their 7nm Vega Instinct GPU, which was originally planned to release in early 2019 but is now set to come out this year.
If anything we have actually seen AMD accelerate towards the 7nm process, at least for their deep learning oriented GPUs.

 

[Yaayuh!]

TSMC also had a malware attack that delayed a lot of things. AMD want to push everything out ASAP.

 

[Orcvader]

AMD released a blog post: https://community.amd.com/community...mance-leadership-with-focused-7nm-development

We have already taped out multiple 7nm products at TSMC, including our first 7nm GPU planned to launch later this year and our first 7nm server CPU that we plan to launch in 2019. Our work with TSMC on their 7nm node has gone very well and we have seen excellent results from early silicon. To streamline our development and align our investments closely with each of our foundry partner’s investments, today we are announcing we intend to focus the breadth of our 7nm product portfolio on TSMC’s industry-leading 7nm process. We also continue to have a broad partnership with GLOBALFOUNDRIES spanning multiple process nodes and technologies. We will leverage the additional investments GLOBALFOUNDRIES is making in their robust 14nm and 12nm technologies at their New York fab to support the ongoing ramp of our AMD Ryzen, AMD Radeon and AMD EPYC processors. We do not expect any changes to our product roadmaps as a result of these changes.

I suppose TSMC will be used for their latest CPU/GPU/APUs, while GF's 14/12nm process could potentially be used on other things that doesn't require bleeding edge tech, such as the chipset.

 

[KentMan]

Do we have any evidence that TSMC's 7nm is decent yet? heard a few rumors that they missed their target for it, but given their track record with Nvidia and Apple of producing decent chips, im not too worried.

Will be interesting to see if they respin Vega to 7nm on a TSMC node, how much of the uplift is from the shrink and how much is from a simply better producer than GloFo.

For a true apples to apples you would need the same chip spun from both fabs which is now very unlikely to ever happen. As above stated AMD have said that they still plan on using GloFo and that they still plan on using 14nm going forward, and one would assume this will probably be APU's and other such stuff going forward til 7nm has room for these products.

TSMC have Qualcomm, AMD, Apple and Nvidia as customers now, one thing i expect to now see is a lower throughput for AMD on CPU / GPU availability unfortunately, due to the volume of products TSMC is already producing for others.

 

[smogsy]

Do we have any evidence that TSMC's 7nm is decent yet? heard a few rumors that they missed their target for it, but given their track record with Nvidia and Apple of producing decent chips, im not too worried.

Will be interesting to see if they respin Vega to 7nm on a TSMC node, how much of the uplift is from the shrink and how much is from a simply better producer than GloFo.

For a true apples to apples you would need the same chip spun from both fabs which is now very unlikely to ever happen. As above stated AMD have said that they still plan on using GloFo and that they still plan on using 14nm going forward, and one would assume this will probably be APU's and other such stuff going forward til 7nm has room for these products.

TSMC have Qualcomm, AMD, Apple and Nvidia as customers now, one thing i expect to now see is a lower throughput for AMD on CPU / GPU availability unfortunately, due to the volume of products TSMC is already producing for others.

new TSMC Second location to be built using cash from AMD,Apple,Nvdia to keep up with demand

 

[EsaT]

"We have already taped out multiple 7nm products at TSMC, including our first 7nm GPU planned to launch later this year and our first 7nm server CPU that we plan to launch in 2019. " - Mark Papermaster

I wonder what the other products are that are already taped out at 7nm are. Interesting times ahead...

Likely Zen2 desktop CPUs.
After all same modular design is used throughout line up from deskptop CPUs to server CPUs, so testing is likely going at quite even pace.

It could be quite possible we seem another 12NM refresh for Ryzen IMHO.

More likely AMD is going to use GloFo for chips not aimed at/needing highest performance.
Like APUs, console chips etc.
Especially console chips benefit from lower cost node.
Not using best available node for CPUs would simply be major screw up in competition against Intel!

TSMC have Qualcomm, AMD, Apple and Nvidia as customers now, one thing i expect to now see is a lower throughput for AMD on CPU / GPU availability unfortunately, due to the volume of products TSMC is already producing for others.

While having high unit volumes ARM chips are small lowering amount of needed wafers.
Anyway getting production of majority of AMD's high end products is certainly such significant deal for TSMC, that AMD no doubt has good deal on production capacity.

Wouldn't wonder if it's Nvidia who'll end up with shortest stick in TSMC 7nm production capacity.
I mean they basically haven't advertised anything about 7nm GPU in roadmap.
And production capacity is certainly sold on first come, first served basis.
With more capacity buying customer likely also getting some preferential claim for next round of deals.