TSMC Says 40nm Issues are Resolved
By - Source: Tom's Hardware US
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25 comments
Bring on the production lines for more GPUs!
Have you noticed any improvement in supplies of the ATI Radeon 5800-series of video cards? That's likely due to the increasing yield of 40nm production at fabrication house Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
Mark Liu, Senior VP of Operations at TSMC, said that the chamber matching problems that had impacted yield rates for the company's 40nm node have been resolved, according to Digitimes.
Now TSMC's yield for 40nm product is at the same level as its 65nm product, signaling clear skies. This should be positive news for Nvidia, as its Fermi product is expected to utilize the 40nm process.
Read more about Fermi in our architecture preview.
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What are TSMC's yields right now anyway? 65nm has been around for quite a while now, shouldn't they have it up past 80% or so? Does that mean 40nm is SERIOUSLY 80%?!?! That would be awesome, 5870 here I come!
It is going to be pretty unaffordable to say the least, and on top of that be a power hog. If it performs anything less than 50% better than Cypress, it is a failure in my book and many others.
1. The supply issues from TSCMC
2. The lack of competition from Nvidia (i.e. the delay of Fermi)
If you think we're going to get miraculous price drops because problem 1 has cleared up, you are mistaken. Lack of competition is still driving the high prices. That's why even the MSRP of the 5xxx is a bit high.
I like both companies, but especially when they are competing and driving down prices. Remember how great the price wars were with the last gen? You can't get that without both Fermi and 5xxx series duking it out at the same time.
The prices of the 5000 cards will drop as they start to re-saturate the market (and are currently doing so in fact), but don't expect MSRP prices or lower until there is actual competition from the green team. For the sake of competition, let's just hope Nvidia can actually have something that can be scale to compete well at the lower price points. Only time will tell.
Strikker1- the timing of the manufacturing problems is worth raising an eyebrow over at the very least. But TSMC's production affects all parties who rely on it, not just AMD. It'd be like Nvidia stabbing themselves in the foot in an effort to stab AMD in a slightly more important limb. It probably wouldn't be worth it for them to play dirty in the short run, and especially not worth the risk involved in the long run. Nvidia would know better I would hope, if they saw what AMD just did recently to Intel.
this is related to the yield information in this article its fairly new 01/12/10 so .. basically its placing yields at 60 % for the 40nm processes
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20100112235614_Yields_for_40nm_Still_Below_70_Rumours.html
ROFLMAO, I was thinking the same thing when I seen this...
$240 for a 5850 would definitely turn some heads.