Today Intel has revealed its roadmap of process and packaging improvements, which will power the next several generations of Intel CPUs leading up to 2025 and beyond. This includes Intel's first new transistor architecture in more than a decade.
Read More »GlobalFoundries announces 12nm FinFET technology
GlobalFoundries has announced that its 12nm FinFET technology is ready for production. According to the company, the technology is “optimised for AI Accelerator Applications” and “ideal for high-performance, power-efficient SoC applications” . GlobalFoundries 12nm FinFET technology is manufactured at facilities in Saratoga County, New York and is set to be used in “Computing, …
Read More »Qualcomm switches allegiance, gives chip contract to Samsung
Qualcomm has made a landmark choice for its next-generation Snapdragon mobile chips, as it's chosen to have Samsung manufacture it, rather than its long standing partner, TSMC. This marks the first time that Qualcomm has had any firm other than TSMC manufacture its high-end chips. The chip in question is …
Read More »Apple double-sources its A9 chips from Samsung and TSMC
In a bid to ensure steady supply of its latest system-on-chips for its new iPhone smartphones, Apple decided to source the SoCs from two contract makers of semiconductors: Samsung Foundry and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Apple’s new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus smartphones use A9 processors made by Samsung …
Read More »GlobalFoundries: 14nm yields are exceeding our plans
GlobalFoundries, which started to manufacture chips using 14nm low-power early (14LPE) manufacturing technology several months ago, said on Friday that its yields exceed its original expectations. One of the world’s largest contract makers of semiconductors does not reveal its actual 14nm volumes, but since the chips are made for customers, …
Read More »Nvidia’s next-gen ‘Pascal’ graphics cards will get 16GB of HBM2 memory
At the GPU Technology Conference in Japan, Nvidia Corp. once again revealed key features of its next-generation graphics processing architecture code-named “Pascal”. As a it appears, the company has slightly changed its plans concerning memory capacity supported by its upcoming GPUs. As expected, Nvidia’s high-end graphics processor that belongs to …
Read More »AMD engineer: Developers were given the total freedom with ‘Zen’
The “Zen” micro-architecture is a tremendously important project for Advanced Micro Devices. If the new technology is successful, AMD will become a viable developer of central processing units again. If not, the company will have troubles with surviving. Fortunately, “Zen” is a completely new micro-architecture that promises to be very …
Read More »Nvidia gets first samples of GP100 from TSMC, begins internal tests
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has successfully produced the first samples of Nvidia Corp.’s code-named GP100 graphics processing unit. Nvidia has already started to test the chip internally and should be on-track to release the GPU commercially in mid-2016. 3DCenter reports that Nvidia has sent the first graphics cards based on the …
Read More »Nvidia changes roadmap: ‘Volta’ is now due in 2018
Nvidia Corp. has slightly changed its roadmap concerning GPU architectures. As it appear, its next-gen GPUs code-named “Pascal” are now due in 2016, whereas their successors will be released only in 2018. Based on a new roadmap that Nvidia showcased at a tech conference in Japan, the company will release its …
Read More »GlobalFoundries develops 7nm and 10nm technologies in-house
GlobalFoundries is working on its own 7nm and 10nm fabrication processes and it does not look like the company has plans to license technologies from the outside. The contract maker of semiconductors hopes that specialists from IBM’s microelectronics unit will help it to design world-class leading-edge manufacturing processes. GlobalFoundries, which …
Read More »Chinese investors eye GlobalFoundries to get new process technologies
China's National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund has reportedly approached GlobalFoundries about possible acquisition or cooperation. Chinese investors intend to take over GlobalFoundries in order to significantly improve Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and make it one of the world’s largest contract makers of semiconductors. China-based Hua Capital Management, which …
Read More »TSMC obtains orders from AMD and Nvidia for 16nm FinFET chips
Although Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is behind Samsung Foundry with its first-generation FinFET fabrication technology, which is why it lost orders from Apple and Qualcomm, it will still produce chips using 16nm FinFET manufacturing process for other major customers, including Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia Corp. Advanced Micro Devices plans …
Read More »AMD readies three new GPUs: Greenland, Baffin and Ellesmere
In the recent years, Advanced Micro Devices has reduced the amount of new graphics processors it releases per annum, which lead to massive erosion of its market share and revenue. While the company hopes that its latest product lineup will help it to regain some of the lost share and …
Read More »AMD: We have very strong roadmap for GCN architecture
Despite of ongoing problems and lowering research and development budget, Advanced Micro Devices maintains optimism and claims that it will keep financing development of key products. In the recent months, Advanced Micro Devices has been criticized heavily for re-introducing its previous-generation graphics processing units under new names. The release of …
Read More »AMD is researching multi-core ‘exascale heterogeneous processor’
Advanced Micro Devices has confirmed that it is researching a multi-core accelerated processing unit based on “Zen” micro-architecture, which will eventually power supercomputers with extreme performance. At present the company is only considering a concept design and it is unclear when AMD decides to actually develop such processor. AMD, just …
Read More »Samsung adds 10nm FinFET tech to roadmap, mass production in 2016
Samsung Foundry this week said that it had officially added its 10nm FinFET fabrication technology into its foundry roadmap. The company also clarified that it will start mass production of chips using its third-generation manufacturing process with FinFET transistors in late 2016, which means that the first 16nm commercial chips …
Read More »TSMC plans to use EUV lithography for 5nm process technology
For quite a while, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has been talking about using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography for its advanced 10nm process technology. However, since appropriate scanners are not ready and will not be for at least a couple of years, the company will be unable to take advantage of …
Read More »TSMC’s 7nm tech will use 10nm elements, production starts in 2018
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. this week disclosed some additional details about its 7nm fabrication process. TSMC reiterated plans to start qualifications of the technology in early 2017 and then initiate volume production in 2018. The 7nm process will use certain elements derived from the 10nm fabrication process, which will help …
Read More »TSMC: 10nm is on-track for volume production start in Q4 2016
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. this week denied any delays of risk or mass production of chips using its 10nm process technology. The company intends to start volume production of semiconductors at 10nm node late next year, which means that its clients will receive their first 10nm chips in the first quarter …
Read More »AMD vows to keep R&D investments at appropriate levels
Despite of tough times, Advanced Micro Devices plans to sustain its research and development investments on certain levels in a bid to ensure that its products are competitive in the future. Research and development are two corner stones of high-tech companies. Without fundamental research of things that may not seem important today …
Read More »TSMC begins shipments of chips made using 16nm FinFET process tech
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. announced on Thursday that it had started volume production of chips using its 16nm FinFET manufacturing technology in the second quarter of 2015. The world’s largest contract maker of semiconductors is delivering the first batch of products made at 16nm node to its customers right now, …
Read More »AMD: We have taped out our first FinFET products
Advanced Micro Devices said on Thursday that it had taped out its first products, which will be made using a FinFET process technology. While AMD does not reveal which products it had taped out, it is highly-likely that one of them is a highly-anticipated microprocessor based on “Zen” micro-architecture. “We …
Read More »Intel wants to use EUV lithography for 7nm process technology
Intel Corp. has implied a number of times that it did not need to use extreme ultraviolet lithography for its 7nm manufacturing process. However, after facing problems with multi-patterning methods at 14nm and 10nm fabrication technologies, it seems that the company has changed its mind. This week Intel said that …
Read More »Intel confirms delay of 10nm chips to 2017, blames difficulties
Intel Corp. on Wednesday confirmed the delay of mass production of central processing units using 10nm fabrication process to 2017. The company said that it ran into difficulties with its 10nm technology and decided to stretch the life-cycle of 14nm process with one more family of CPU products code-named “Kaby …
Read More »TSMC rumoured to delay 10nm risk production, actual chips due in 2017
If the semiconductor market rumours are correct, then Intel Corp. might not be the only chipmaker, which plans to delay mass production of chips using 10nm manufacturing process. Apparently, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. postpones risk production using 10nm fabrication process by two quarters. “TSMC will start risk production in its …
Read More »Intel’s ‘Kaby Lake’ processors will be released in late 2016 – report
Intel Corp.’s “Kaby Lake” central processing units will be released exactly a year after the company’s “Skylake” chips due this August and September. The introduction of chips in late third quarter means that the company will further postpone the roll-out of microprocessors made using 10nm fabrication process. As reported, Intel’s …
Read More »TSMC builds first 10nm validation chip with quad-core Cortex-A57
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has announced that it had produced the first verification chips for its 10nm manufacturing technology. The world’s largest contract maker of semiconductors plans to start risk production using 10nm fabrication process late this year and to initiate high-volume manufacturing in late 2016 or in 2017. At …
Read More »More details about GlobalFoundries’ 22nm FD-SOI emerge
GlobalFoundries has revealed additional details regarding its 22nm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) fabrication technology. The manufacturing process will be ready for tape-outs in early 2016 and will be used for mass production of chips by late next year. While the tech has a number of advantages, the process is designed primarily …
Read More »Intel delays ramp of 10nm mass production due to poor yields – report
Intel Corp. has again delayed installation of equipment necessary to produce semiconductors in high volume using 10nm process technology. It is believed that Intel experiences yield ramp issues, just like in case of its 14nm manufacturing tech, which is why it does not make sense for the company to buy …
Read More »UMC: 14nm FinFET technology will be ready for tape outs by year end
United Microelectronics Corp. said on Tuesday that it has successfully taped out a test chip from ARM using its 14nm FinFET fabrication technology. The company also revealed that the new manufacturing process will be ready for customer tape outs by the end of the year. UMC and ARM recently taped …
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