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Even though the future of manufacturing division isn’t set in stone yet, we can now confirm that AMD is also working hard on 22nm, on track for late 2011/early 2012, roughly half a year later than Intel (according to Fudzilla’s story here). First engineers that started to work on the 22nm node were deployed all the way back in Q3′2006, when AMD finished its acquisition of ATI Technologies. If you recall, it was at the time when AMD planned to aggressively finish the work on Fab4X in New York and switch GPU manufacturing from TSMC to 45nm SOI, alongside K10.5 (codename Shanghai/Deneb). A lot of things changed, but still, we managed to learn several interesting bits. Manufacturing-wise, AMD’s Dresden division is consisted out of former 200mm-wafer Fab30 and 300mm-wafer Fab36. AMD sold all of the Fab30 equipment and plans to put the 32nm 300mm-wafer node by the end of this year, and bring Fab38 online next year, with first CPUs manufactured using 32nm process. Fab36 will begin winding down the 45nm production when Fab38 takes over and start introducing 32nm nodes one by one. Fab38 will peak at 22nm manufacturing process, destiny of Fab36 still isn’t decided, but it is expected to continue beyond 2012 and 22nm process. On the other hand, Fab4x in Luther Park, NY is being built specifically for 22nm process using 300mm wafers. Fab4x is planned as the native 22nm Fab and first chips will be manufactured using the 22nm process. It is still undecided will that “honor†go to AMD’s CPU/GPU or perhaps customers product, it is still too early to see. Rise of Fab38 and Fab4x will mean that manufacturing nightmares will finally end for AMD, because this company was always hurting on two levels – when manufacturing was up, AMD didn’t had the architecture to pull it off, and when AMD had the architecture to win the market, the company didn’t had the manufacturing capabilities. With CPU, GPU and chipset being manufactured under the same roof, and yet offering technologies such as SOI, High-K, Low-Power in 45nm, 32nm and 22nm to various customers, seeing 3rd party vendors manufacturing their processors at TFC or should we write “MAD AMD†(Mubadala Abu Dhabi hearts Advanced Micro Devices or simply, Arab Micro Devices) is a definite possibility. For anyone interested in why ATIC and Mubadala Abu Dhabi invested in AMD and that “that investment was a dead endâ€, might want to think twice. AMD has world-leading facilities in Dresden and ability to build three more clean rooms (â€Fabsâ€) in Dresden, and Luther Park facility is capable of expanding from one clean room (Fab4x) to three (probably Fab 5x, 5x and 6x in the next 20 years). My only worry is the fact that the CEO of TFC/Arab Micro Devices is no other than Hector Jesus Ruiz, former CEO of AMD. After witnessing disasterious decisions in Motorola’s semiconductor division (which became known as Freescale Semiconductor) and well, you decide how to call AMD’s era between 2005 and 2008, can Hector actually pull himself to common senses and create a manufacturing giant? Only time will tell. His credibility in the industry is very low, and the only CEO with less credibility in semico industry was Alex Leupp, former CEO of Siemens AG and 3Dfx Inc. Yep, the guy that chopped off Siemens to bits, turned 3Dfx into 3dfx, killed partner relationships and drove 3dfx into the ground. This is less than flattering for Hector, and we’ll see can he finally deliver, or ruin another company. In 2012, AMD + MAD AMD will have the capability to manufacture 75,000 wafer starts a month, or almost million wafer starts a year. Have in mind that out of these 75,000 wafer starts, around 50% will be in 22nm, 35% in 32nm and 15% in 45nm. This manufacturing ability should be able to turn the tide not just for AMD, but for other manufacturers as well. I have seen plans about potential customers, and without going into further details, we can say that at least one next-gen console will have its CPU and GPU manufactured by The Foundry Company. Can you guess which one? |
With the expected shrink in the semiconductor market, I hope AMD can pull this off.
Finally a new machine!
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Finally a new machine!
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