TSMC's 7 nm Fabrication Becomes Biggest Share of Revenue in 4Q18

[Raevenlord]

TSMC's introduction of its 7 nm fabrication technology has essentially propelled the company to silicon manufacturing heights. Every company - particularly in the mobile space - is after the most minute increase in transistor density and power consumption improvements the latest and greatest can bring. AMD themselves have become a major TSMC partner in pursuit of its newfound competitiveness against Intel, and has apparently leveraged the 7 nm process as a way to keep its high-performance GPU offering minimally competitive with NVIDIA's solution - at a much lesser die area requirement, if the Radeon VII vs RTX 2080 estimates are something to go by.

As a consequence of the market interest for the 7 nm process, it has rapidly become TSMC's biggest revenue generator as soon as 4Q18. The company said that 7 nm already generated 10% of the company's entire 2018 revenue, despite the process only having been ramped up in June of the same year. Other less dense technologies still generate a lot of revenue for the company, and are likely much higher volume. However, TSMC is most likely riding on much increased ASP for 7 nm wafers than for other technologies.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Casecutter]

With Apple iPhone/iPad sales waning in China and globally, this might mean AMD is in a strong position with their Instinct Professional series. Who else is on 7nm? Heck back a little ago TSMC was saying they need clients, wonder if they'd juggle AMD wafer price to get production humming?

 

[jabbadap]

With Apple iPhone/iPad sales waning in China and globally, this might mean AMD is in a strong position with their Instinct Professional series. Who else is on 7nm? Heck back a little ago TSMC was saying they need clients, wonder if they'd juggle AMD wafer price to get production humming?

Almost every new high end phone chip other than Samsung. But other than that, this is about what brings Revenue to TSMC not how much manufacturing they made to whom.

 

[R0H1T]

With Apple iPhone/iPad sales waning in China and globally, this might mean AMD is in a strong position with their Instinct Professional series. Who else is on 7nm? Heck back a little ago TSMC was saying they need clients, wonder if they'd juggle AMD wafer price to get production humming?

Well there's the other elephant in the room called EPYC, I bet that's eating a lot of Si wafers.

It's more like AMD needs TSMC, just as much as TSMC needing AMD to keep their fabs running at full capacity utilization. It's unlikely that TSMC will have too much wiggle room to lower their prices. Don't forget they'll update 7nm with EUV, then march towards 5nm & 3nm with increased R&D spending. If the rest of the industry isn't paying as much for this, then AMD will have to pay some of the tab.

 

[Robcostyle]

Hello, monopoly! Long time no see!....

 

[Deleted member 158293]

Doesn't get any more bleeding edge manufacturing than this.

Looks like AMD bet everything on 7nm and it's starting to pay off.

 

[Casecutter]

Well there's the other elephant in the room called EPYC, I bet that's eating a lot of Si wafers.

Thanks completely forgot EPYC.

That's AMD's other big piece... all culminating the HPC, AI, Deep-Learning, Cloud, Datacenter/Server markets. All that is booming and AMD is right out in front in those hugely lucrative markets.

https://www.thestreet.com/investing/amd-plans-for-battling-intel-and-nvidia-in-data-center-14771526

 

[Vayra86]

Thanks completely forgot EPYC.

That's AMD's other big piece... all culminating the HPC, AI, Deep-Learning, Cloud, Datacenter/Server markets. All that is booming and AMD is right out in front in those hugely lucrative markets.

https://www.thestreet.com/investing/amd-plans-for-battling-intel-and-nvidia-in-data-center-14771526

I think its pretty amazing how the changes in the marketplace benefit AMD's positioning of the past few years. Its either some really dumb luck or a really solid educated guess they made. It shows how timing is so much the key to success.

 

[nguyen]

Letting go relationships with GloFo was probably the best decision AMD has made in a while lol.

 

[Captain_Tom]

"keep its high-performance GPU offering minimally competitive with NVIDIA's solution"

Alright I am convinced TPU is intentionally trolling at this point. That, or that GPP really does force them to shill once a day.

I think its pretty amazing how the changes in the marketplace benefit AMD's positioning of the past few years. Its either some really dumb luck or a really solid educated guess they made. It shows how timing is so much the key to success.

I mean if you think about it AMD has been making "educated guesses" for a decade. First 6-core, stripped-down multicore (bulldozer), Async, DX12, crossfire, etc.

They have to get it right a few times.... and it has almost destroyed them before. Lisa Su seems especially adept at knowing which ones are the right bet though, which is good.