AMD to Switch to GlobalFoundries with 28 nm GPUs

[btarunr]

With AMD's next generation of graphics processors, the company plans to, at one point, switch its GPU manufacturing from its present Taiwan-based foundry partners such as TSMC and UMC, to GlobalFoundaries, its erstwhile own manufacturing division. From 40 nm, graphics processors are expected to jump to 28 nm as the next manufacturing process standard. GlobalFoundries will be ready with a 28 nm High-K metal gate (HKMG) node for making AMD products which are now bulk-manufactured in Taiwan.

During a quarterly conference call with financial analysts, chief executive officer of AMD, Dirk Meyer said "The first intersection of our AMD GPUs and GlobalFoundries are on the 28nm. We haven’t been public with respect to any timing there." GlobalFoundries is said to have two principal kinds of 28 nm nodes, the 28nm-HP (High Performance) node makes complex chips such as GPUs, game console chips, storage controllers, networking and media encoding, while the 28nm-SLP (Super Low Power) is used for less complex devices, particularly intended to be low-power, for portable devices, such as baseband, application processors, and other handheld functions. In 2011, AMD is expected to release its next-generation of GPUs in a series codenamed "Northern Islands".

Source: X-bit Labs

[Phxprovost]

Im all for GF and am pretty excited to see what a second giant in the process can stir up...but to date has GF actually produced anything? Ive read a lot of articles detailing all the challenges they are overcoming....but i have yet to see anything retail orientated come from their fabs.

[Fourstaff]

Ah, AMD is fed up with TSMC already. It makes a lot of sense though, to produce their chips in their own foundry.

[erixx]

AMD preparing to take over the world... James Bond must be called in and blow those Northern Island HQ's up.... lol

[HalfAHertz]

Originally Posted by Phxprovost

Im all for GF and am pretty excited to see what a second giant in the process can stir up...but to date has GF actually produced anything? Ive read a lot of articles detailing all the challenges they are overcoming....but i have yet to see anything retail orientated come from their fabs.

They have been making all the phenom 2s , nothing on the HMK bulk process tho...

I think everyone saw this coming

[Necrofire]

Question:

What makes this process different than the ones used for making CPUs?

If there isn't any difference, then why aren't they making CPUs on the current 40nm process?

I'm confus.

[HalfAHertz]

From my limited understanding SOI produces fewer wafer errors but i more expensive to develop

[Semi-Lobster]

Any news on the rumoured 40nm 'Southern Island' semi-refresh?

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by Phxprovost

Im all for GF and am pretty excited to see what a second giant in the process can stir up...but to date has GF actually produced anything?

Every AMD processor you see in the market today is made by GF. Apart from that, these are GF's current clients:

[Imsochobo]

Originally Posted by HalfAHertz

They have been making all the phenom 2s , nothing on the HMK bulk process tho...

I think everyone saw this coming

HMK.

Sure they got it

[HossHuge]

I wonder how this will effect their pricing? Labour costs in Taiwan are quite cheap. According to Wiki, they have factories in Germany, Singapore and soon to be New York.

[RONX GT]

WoW,28 NM will be GREAT.If they actually release those i wonder what will NV do next..

[Kitkat]

engage!

[erixx]

Originally Posted by HossHuge

I wonder how this will effect their pricing? Labour costs in Taiwan are quite cheap. According to Wiki, they have factories in Germany, Singapore and soon to be New York.

No humans only cyborgs

[Sasqui]

Originally Posted by Necrofire

Question:

What makes this process different than the ones used for making CPUs?

If there isn't any difference, then why aren't they making CPUs on the current 40nm process?

I'm confus.

A number of likely reasons. They may have gone to TMSC for the 40nm GPU fab for production capacity and cost. Apparently, NV did the same thing with not so good results.

With 28 nm processing, they could theoretically put almost 1.5x+ the transistors in the same die size, and run it even faster.

[Delta6326]

Dang that suck's because TSMC announced they where going to go to 20nm but maybe im wrong also they said in like 2012

[theeldest]

Originally Posted by Delta6326

Dang that suck's because TSMC announced they where going to go to 20nm but maybe im wrong also they said in like 2012

The problem is that TSMC likes to announce a smaller node then deliver late and with problems.

[Lionheart]

Awesome, can't wait for northern island GPU's to come out, even though its like a year away, me want now!

[MikeX]

1.5x more transistors on the same die plus 1ghz+ on every GPU of the 28nm series !!

[AphexDreamer]

So eventually we hit a limit in size or do we just go down to the atom? I mean how much smaller can these things get? Like 8 or 12 nm maybe?

[gumpty]

Originally Posted by AphexDreamer

So eventually we hit a limit in size or do we just go down to the atom? I mean how much smaller can these things get? Like 8 or 12 nm maybe?

Yeah, that's what I've heard. At a certain size they can only really fit one electron down the path.

After that I guess we wait for quantum computing.

[crow1001]

Woohoo, no more TSMC, they have been bloody useless lately, Nvidia can have them all to themselves..

[Baam]

Originally Posted by btarunr

Every AMD processor you see in the market today is made by GF. Apart from that, these are GF's current clients:

http://img.techpowerup.org/100420/bta167.jpg

No Nvidia yet?

[PCpraiser100]

It seems that we got a line of 28nm GPUs coming in several years or so. I better start saving for a console-sized PC project if its something small that packs a punch.

[neo1231]

dont you see what happening? they are getting ready for the deal that they signed with apple!! i see huge leaps in performance on fractions of power of the predecessors. i cant wait to see what they come out with