GlobalFoundries on Tuesday clarified claims about its ramp up of 14nm chip production at fab 8 manufacturing facility in Malta, New York. The world's second largest contract maker of semiconductors has taped out multiple 14nm designs and is tweaking its equipment using a lead product at the moment. The company is …
Read More »Mubadala: GlobalFoundries begins to ramp up production of 14nm chips
Mubadala Development Co., the Abu Dhabi-based investment and development company, said this week that GlobalFoundries, which is owned by Mubadala, has already begun to ramp up production of chips using 14nm fabrication process. “GlobalFoundries announced a strategic collaboration with Samsung to deliver capacity at 14nm, one of the industry’s most …
Read More »GlobalFoundries and Samsung to produce Apple’s next A9 SoC together – report
Based on the recent market rumours, Samsung Foundry and GlobalFoundries have landed orders to produce Apple’s A9 system-on-chip that will power the company’s next-generation iPhone and iPad devices. It is unknown whether Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. will also produce the A9 SoC at any point. At present Apple’s A8 application …
Read More »AMD faces massive securities fraud lawsuit because of ‘Llano’ problems in 2011
While Advanced Micro Devices has plenty of troubles today, it looks like the company could be hit by problems from the past, which are associated with the launch of its code-named “Llano” accelerated processing unit. AMD may have to pay damages to parties, which bought the company’s shares between April, 2011, …
Read More »TSMC loses orders to UMC, Chinese manufacturers
For many years Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has been gaining market share by grabbing orders from smaller rivals. However, in the recent quarters companies like United Microelectronics Corp. managed to increase their yields and started to snatch orders from TSMC. While the latter will retain its positions, the situation seems …
Read More »AMD readies ‘Greenland’ graphics processor
Advanced Micro Devices is working on a new graphics processing unit code-named “Greenland”, which will be released next year. The new graphics chip will replace code-named “Fiji” GPU and will be AMD’s flagship graphics solution in 2016. Nothing particular is known about the forthcoming Radeon graphics processor, except its code-name. …
Read More »Nvidia starts to use Samsung as a chip manufacturing partner – company
Nvidia Corp. and Samsung Electronics have quietly signed an agreement under which the latter will produce computer chips for the former. At present, it is unknown whether Samsung will manufacture graphics processors or application processors for the chip designer, but it is obvious that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is no …
Read More »AMD cuts ‘Bulldozer’ instructions from ‘Zen’ processors
Advanced Micro Devices has been talking about development of its next-generation high-performance “Zen” architecture for months now, but so far it has not revealed any details about the chips officially. Nonetheless, thanks to a recent patch for Linux we have learnt one significant detail about “Zen”: it will not support many …
Read More »AMD begins to enable ‘Zen’ processors support in Linux
Advanced Micro Devices has begun to add support of its upcoming microprocessors powered by “Zen” micro-architecture to Linux operating systems. The enablement of future chips in Linux confirms AMD’s plans to release such central processing units and even reveals some facts about their functionality. Unfortunately, addition of support does not …
Read More »AMD: We will actively promote ‘Zen’ processors for server market
Advanced Micro Devices now commands only about 2 or 3 per cent of the server market because of various reasons and the company is not going to regain its positions with the current Opteron offerings. Nonetheless, the chip designer seems to pin a lot of hopes on its “Zen” micro-architecture …
Read More »Samsung: 10nm technology in development, 7nm will require new transistors
Kinam Kim, the president of Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor business, presented his view on the development of chip manufacturing technologies at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference 2015 this week. Samsung is already developing its next-generation 10nm FinFET fabrication process, but in order to continue scaling down structures of chips, new materials …
Read More »Nvidia: TSMC will remain a ‘very important’ foundry partner
After IBM failed to produce enough code-named “NV40” graphics processing units for Nvidia Corp. back in 2004, the latter decided to make Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. its strategic manufacturing partner. Since then, virtually all of Nvidia GPUs have been produced by TSMC with one or two exceptions. Apparently, Nvidia wants …
Read More »Intel: Our lead over the rest of the industry is extending
Intel Corp. had to delay its code-named “Broadwell” microprocessors by about a year because of yield issues with its 14nm manufacturing technology. The move has affected plans of PC makers and will have an impact on PC business this year. However, Intel’s dominant positions will hardly be threatened since the …
Read More »Samsung to produce chips for Nvidia, Qualcomm – analyst
Samsung Electronics is expected to significantly improve its contract semiconductor manufacturing business this year thanks to early start of production using 14nm FinFET fabrication process. While Apple, the largest customer of Samsung, now orders chips not only to Samsung, but to TSMC as well, it continues to work with the …
Read More »AMD: We are actively designing 14nm FinFET chips
Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday confirmed for the first time that it is actively designing several chips that will be made using 14nm FinFET process technology. The announcement from AMD indicates that the company will manufacture its new chips either at GlobalFoundries or Samsung Electronics, not at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing …
Read More »GlobalFoundries denies problems with 14nm: everything is as planned
GlobalFoundries, the world’s second largest contract manufacturer of chips, late on Tuesday denied existence of problems with the ramp up of production using 14nm fabrication process. According to the foundry, it specifically stockpiles manufacturing equipment at a warehouse so that to install it once the fab 8 facility becomes compatible …
Read More »GlobalFoudries stops installations of 14nm tools, could delay production
Although GlobalFoundries has licensed 14nm FinFET manufacturing technology from Samsung Electronics back in May, 2014, it looks like the company may have to delay mass production using the fabrication process. According to a media report, the company has stopped installation of equipment required to make chips using 14nm FinFET technology. …
Read More »AMD could use GlobalFoundries’ SHP process technology for GPUs
Although Advanced Micro Devices wants to cease using special process technologies for its products in order to cut-down their manufacturing and development costs, it looks like next year the company will have to use GlobalFoundries’ 28nm super high-performance (SHP) technology for its Radeon graphics processors in order to ensure their …
Read More »GlobalFoundries: Customized and SOI process technologies gain importance
While non-standard fabrication processes are sometimes challenging and make it harder to re-use intellectual property across different product lineups, they are just what the doctor ordered when one needs to achieve certain goals. According to GlobalFoundries, the No. 2 contract maker of chips, many customized process technologies are gaining importance …
Read More »GlobalFoundries to produce 14nm chips in the first half of 2015
GlobalFoundries, the world’s second largest contract maker of semiconductors, plans to start volume production of chips using 14nm fabrication process in the first half of 2015, a little later than Samsung Electronics, but, possibly, earlier than Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. The company does not reveal who will be the first …
Read More »Web-site compares performance of next-gen GPUs from AMD and Nvidia
A web-site has published alleged benchmark results of next-generation graphics cards from Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia Corp., such as code-named “Bermuda XT”, “Fiji XT” as well as GM200. Without a lot of surprises, the new single-chip graphics solutions from AMD and Nvidia will offer a noticeable performance improvement compared …
Read More »GlobalFoundries may seriously expand GPU manufacturing for AMD
GlobalFoundries may significantly expand production of graphics processing units for Advanced Micro Devices next year, according to a new market rumour. If the unofficial information is correct, then GlobalFoundries will produce at least two high-end AMD Radeon graphics chips in 2015. At present GlobalFoundries produces the bulk of high-performance accelerated processing units …
Read More »Samsung begins mass production of chips using 14nm FinFET process tech
Samsung Electronics has begun volume production of semiconductors using 14nm FinFET fabrication process in accordance with its plans outlined earlier this year. The company does not disclose which chips it produces using its 14LPE (low-power early) manufacturing technology and for which companies. Kim Ki-nam, president of Samsung's semiconductor business and …
Read More »AMD: first products made using 14nm/16nm FinFET are ‘on track’
Although Advanced Micro Devices has not revealed any details about its 2015 roadmap this year, the company continues to unveil pieces of the puzzle. Last week the firm implied that it will use 20nm fabrication process for select products, but on Tuesday AMD hinted that products made using 14nm and 16nm …
Read More »AMD downplays 20nm process tech: only ‘certain’ products will use it
Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday implied that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s 20nm fabrication process would only be used for select products, whereas the main focus of the chip designer is on more advanced fabrication processes with FinFET transistors. Unfortunately, AMD did not reveal any actual plans. “From an overall standpoint, today …
Read More »AMD: GlobalFoundries makes APUs, CPUs, GPUs and console chips for us
GlobalFoundries, the world’s second largest contract maker of semiconductors, has leading edge process technologies and advanced fabs. However, in the recent years the company had to significantly alter its plans, which affected its performance and relations with customers. Fortunately, according to AMD, a key client of GF, the problems seem …
Read More »Invecas to help GlobalFoundries’ clients to migrate to new technologies
GlobalFoundries, a contract maker of semiconductors, has signed a deal with Invecas, a newly formed design services provider. Under the terms of the agreement, Invecas will help customers of GlobalFoundries to design chips to be made using leading-edge semiconductor process technologies. It is not an easy task to design chips …
Read More »AMD hires former exec from Dell to head enterprise, embedded, semi-custom businesses
Advanced Micro Devices on Monday announced that Forrest Norrod, a former vice president and general manager of Dell’s server business, has joined the company as senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s enterprise, embedded and semi-custom (EESC) business group. “Forrest is an industry veteran whose strong track record of …
Read More »Soft Machines startup unveils VISC CPU architecture
Soft Machines, a startup that develops microprocessor technologies, has unveiled its own VISC processor architecture. The developer claims that VISC can increase processor’s average number of instructions executed per each clock cycle (instructions per cycle, IPC) by three or four times, thus increasing performance performance-per-watt by two or four times …
Read More »GlobalFoundries to acquire semiconductor business from IBM
IBM and GlobalFoundries on Monday said that they have reached a definitive agreement under which the latter will acquire semiconductor manufacturing business of the former. GlobalFoundries will get intellectual property, world-class technologists and technologies related to IBM Microelectronics. It will also become IBM's exclusive server processor maker for 22nm, 14nm …
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