NVIDIA试验80nm工艺，TSMC和UMC均成候选对象

Edison

TSMC and UMC vying for Nvidia orders in 80nm production

Monica Chen, Taipei; Rodney Chan, DigiTimes.com [Friday 30 June 2006]


Nvidia has started trial runs on 80nm node manufacturing at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), but UMC, bent on receiving the orders, may resort to fierce pricing, according to industry sources.

Both Nvidia and ATI Technologies are gearing up for migration to 80nm process production, with ATI scheduled to production later this year at both TSMC and UMC.

Nvidia CEO Huang Jen-hsun has described TSMC as its closest production partner, with the foundry making 90% of its products. The other 10% are manufactured by UMC and Chartered Semiconductor.

Nvidia said it will make the best use of its manufacturing partners' advanced processes, and it will make announcements concerning its production strategy at a proper time.

TSMC said it would not disclose details about its clients. But it maintained that Nvidia has always been a good partner, and it will remain so in the future. UMC declined to comment.

Nvidia expects to start producing its HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) G73-B1 graphics card manufactured on an 80nm process at the end of the third quarter, and coming next will be its low-end G72 graphics processing unit (GPU), the sources said.

While migration to an 80nm process will cut down production costs, Nvidia has no plans to adopt the 80nm process for its high-end G71 GPUs because the shipment volume is not high, and making them at a more mature process delivers better yields, the sources said.

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期待~~~~~~~~~~