Global Foundries has 1st customer

[BadTrip]

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3614

 

[neon neophyte]

considering AMD owns half of global foundries, this is good news! ;p (ok less than half. but still!)

 

[theholylancer]

this whole fabless things seems to be like a giant pot for multiple design companies to compete against larger corps like intel. I think they are going to need a lot more than just one partner on board for this to work, hopefully when fab 2 is finished they will have lots of customers.


wonder if there are any possibilities of issues with this pot approach, like a regular pot approach and one or two players take too much.

 

[xaira]

i think the move to concentrate on design and leave production to gf was a good move, and its not only for small companies, heard nvidia is interested, lets just hope their 40nm node is better than tsmc.

 

[xaira]

is there a link to explain this whole ranking thing, i have 331 posts and 674 points, thl above me has 1191 posts and 1160 points, yet we are both apprentice???

 

[megamanx00]

They'll probably start 40nm early next year. Apparently ATI is suppose to have a certain part of their GPUs made by Global Foundries as per the agreement with AMD. Just what part that is seems to be anyone's guess right now.

 

[neon neophyte]

xaira, hijacking a thread is unacceptable.

start your own.

 

[xaira]

i dont wanna start a whole thread, i just wanna no if anyone has a link, and no one has to stop talking about GF having their first customer, i never said explain to me on this thread!!!

 

[jimmysmitty]

So 22nm is set for..... 2012? Thats if they can make it on 45nm that long..... Thats 3 years for 45nm. Thats a long time really. At least AMDs yields will be pretty good for 45nm. but skipping 32nm might have some drawbacks.

So if thats that then Intel will have 28nm in 2011 but hmmm.....

Ok not sure about this. Will it be 22nm for GPUs only then? Or what? because the process for GPUs generally can't be used for CPUs unless they are both the same style...

Guess its more confusing than it looks.

 

[amdfangirl]

Well... AMD won't be competitive until 2012 then, right?

 

[theholylancer]

well if nvidia, ati, DAS storage controller ppl (adapetec?) that needs high performance, and others are willing to pool their money in, from the high end to low end, then this would work.

/** pure BS/thinking on my part**/
Intel has to continuously phase out or sell off their old stuff when it no longer suits them, whereas other fabs has more flexibility. For example, old 90nm nodes? no problem, here are some high performance networking designs/chip for some of that talking doll crap? that could be used and put the 90nm nodes to use.
/** pure BS/thinking on my part**/

thats how I think about this, although someone else correct me if I'm wrong.

also, ranking atm is pure fudgy imo, I stop worrying about it until some noob call me the noob with a apprentice ranking lol

 

[amdfangirl]

I hate the new rankings :/

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

I hate the new rankings :/

I'm not fond of it myself.

Hey thanks Badtrip for this interesting read. I am glad GF is here, it should allow smaller companies to thrive and that will drive competition in all markets.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Having ATI is more than AMD ever did with their fabs doing their cpus alone, besides anyone else
Thats an instant profit for AMD, as part of those monies spent rolls back to them thru GF, the only 1 missing out is TSMC.
Tried splainin this awhile back, almost got run out heheh

 

[jennyh]

Yep, it's just free money for AMD. At first I thought it was bad that they had to start up GloFo but in the end it's gonna be very apparent that they did the right thing, the only thing that made sense.

I actually think Nvidia will end up working with GloFo too, because history has shown that it's never good to have all your eggs in one basket.

 

[theholylancer]

o man TSMC is gona be pissed, especially if GF flys under the flag of the most innovative company bringing out the best CPU or something, once AMD gets their performance crown back lol

 

[jennyh]

TSMC haven't actually lost anything, because ST Micros made their own chips up till now. It's kind of like an emerging market, the businesses who could happily make their own chips at 65nm or above simply cannot afford the newer tech.

AMD couldn't afford to go lower than 45nm, that's why Global Foundries was created. Every other company that reaches that stage (and we're talking $billions in development costs and fabs now) will be forced to go with either GF or TSMC. It's a big growth area for them both.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

From Overclockers:

Analysis: Globalfoundries needs to grow

TSMC Chairman Predicts Tough Victory Over GlobalFoundries

AMD's spinoff seeks non-AMD customers - no surprise here, although I think the deep-pockets fueled by oil money will keep Global Foundries going when others might fold. The more GF wins new business, the less AMD will get preferential treatment - could GF ultimately bite the hand that feeds it?

There have been other reports stating GF is trying to distance itself from AMD, esp. as AMD's share drops to the minimum 25% ownership required by the x86 license.

 

[jennyh]

GF can distance themselves all they want, AMD is always going to own 25% of it. In the end, the more successful GF is, the more money AMD will make. It's win-win, there is no way AMD can lose out of this.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

GF can distance themselves all they want, AMD is always going to own 25% of it. In the end, the more successful GF is, the more money AMD will make. It's win-win, there is no way AMD can lose out of this.

This another one of your famous "guarantees"??

AMD currently has no spare cash to pump into GF, so as GF spends more $$ to upgrade & build, eventually they will have to spend more than the remaining ~10% ownership margin left for AMD (currently around 35% IIRC). I guess AMD could try to borrow the $$ somewhere (pretty hard to do when your credit rating is somewhere between really bad & abysmal), but the idea was for AMD to shift the fab costs to somebody else.

AMD's last & best hope would be to renegotiate the x86 license, PDQ, to get rid of the 25% ownership clause...

 

[jennyh]

We don't know the exact details of the deal that was struck though do we. I mean, GF have already started on 22nm development, so either AMD paid their share on that or a deal was made when the company was created.

Assuming GF get to 22nm first, AMD will be on 22nm before intel and that will bring in more cash than they've ever had, which in turn will help GF to continue with smaller and smaller fabs. Both companies are forever linked to each others success now, GF have made it clear that they are out to dominate chip production and they sure as hell have the money behind them.

You can be sure that AMD have no intention of ever giving up the 25% minimum. Why would they? The more money GF makes, the more AMD make. With GF ahead on nanometer tech, AMD will be ahead on cpu power which means more people will want their cpu's instead of intels = more money.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

OK, besides rumor, who can bring more business to GF than AMD? And, thats including ATI as well, and any chipset business thats still going?

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Sure, theyll dunp their largest by far business oartner/buying customer for lessor trails, uh huh, and I just saw Baron wearing a i7 T shirt too

 

[fazers_on_stun]

We don't know the exact details of the deal that was struck though do we. I mean, GF have already started on 22nm development, so either AMD paid their share on that or a deal was made when the company was created.

Assuming GF get to 22nm first, AMD will be on 22nm before intel and that will bring in more cash than they've ever had, which in turn will help GF to continue with smaller and smaller fabs. Both companies are forever linked to each others success now, GF have made it clear that they are out to dominate chip production and they sure as hell have the money behind them.

You can be sure that AMD have no intention of ever giving up the 25% minimum. Why would they? The more money GF makes, the more AMD make. With GF ahead on nanometer tech, AMD will be ahead on cpu power which means more people will want their cpu's instead of intels = more money.

We do know that ATIC (Abu Dhabi) forced AMD to renegotiate the deal last December, after AMD's stock value plummeted, leaving them with just 35% ownership instead of the original 50/50. Nominally AMD retains 50% of the voting rights, but I'm pretty sure they tend to vote however ATIC tells them to. The 50% is just subterfuge to get around the x86 license requirements.

The trouble with your prognosis is that you forget Intel is also working hard to stay 1 yr ahead in process. Intel learned its lesson with Prescott - they don't stand still waiting for the competition to catch up or surpass them. They had a 4-quarter lead on 45nm, will likely maintain that on 32nm and unless some disaster occurs, I'd bet on them staying in the lead at 22nm.

AMD is not in the driver's seat when it comes to anything external. Financial necessity forces them to be reactive, not proactive. Maybe AMD would like to retain some ownership in GF, maybe not. What I'm fairly confident about is that, should GF need a cash infusion, they won't be getting it from AMD. Ya can't squeeze blood from a dried-up turnip, as the saying goes .

 

[fazers_on_stun]

OK, besides rumor, who can bring more business to GF than AMD? And, thats including ATI as well, and any chipset business thats still going?

Heh, well there's a distinction between cash business and credit, so I'd imagine GF would like to line up some customers who can actually fork over some bux to pay for the fabbed product, instead of IOU's . Besides, I imagine GF would like to diversify their customer base, just in case their biggest customer winds up BK.