Nvidia, AMD to stick with TSMC for 28nm foundry

Digitimes has revealed that Nvidia and AMD is expected to remain with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) for 28nm foundry. This is despite reports that Qualcomm has switched foundry orders for its 28nm-based Snapdragon S4 processors from TSMC to Samsung Electronics because TSMC's 28nm capacity has failed to meet its needs.

TSMC has the upper hand over Samsung in 28nm technology, yield rate and price and therefore changing foundry partnership involves high risks, the sources noted. In addition, Nvidia is projected to consider Samsung's ARM-based processors in competition with its Tegra 3 processors, the sources indicated.

AMD has cooperated with TSMC for 28nm-based production of its Southern Islands graphics chips and nearly finished tapeout of Sea Islands models for 28nm-based production scheduled to begin by the end of the year, the sources indicated. For APUs, AMD has had TSMC producing low-power models including Brazos 2.0 and Hondo based on 40nm Bulk CMOS process and will adopt TSMC's 28nm Bulk CMOS technology in 2013, the sources added.