Friday, April 6th 2012

TSMC Faces Acute 28 nm Capacity Shortage

Taiwan's premier semiconductor foundry, TSMC, is reportedly facing an acute shortage in 28 nm manufacturing capacity. This shortage is expected to relax in Q3, 2012, according to sources. Qualcomm, AMD, and NVIDIA are the three biggest patrons of the 28 nm process, Qualcomm uses it to manufacture performance ARM application processors, while AMD and NVIDIA use it for their new generation GPUs. Although launched at the very end of Q4 2011, AMD's HD 7970 shipped a relatively small volume due to low manufacturing capacity. NVIDIA launched only two 28 nm GPUs, the GTX 680, and GT 640M, and has had to delay launch of more models, due to this reason, according to source. Qualcomm, meanwhile, shifted some of its orders to UMC.
Source: DigiTimes
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32 Comments on TSMC Faces Acute 28 nm Capacity Shortage

#26
Aquinus
Resident Wat-man
nikkoJust like the floods the 10% shortage leading to 300% prices, oh well with video cards is much worse than just 10%. Who is going to sponsor this event.
The flooding affected more than just 10%. It's more like 30%.
HotHardware.comHDD production was sitting around 175 million units in the third quarter of 2011 before the floods, after which time it quickly dropped to 120-125 million units. Since then, there's been a concerted effort to restore operations to pre-flood levels. By the second quarter of this year, DigiTimes says production capacity will rise to 160 million before returning to 175 million in the third quarter.
Source
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#27
OneCool
BenetanegiaBecause a paper launch is when you review your products and don't sell them after a later date. AMD paper launched HD7970 because they made reviews in December, but retail availability didn't happen until January.
From my understanding releasing the NDA early on a product and keeping the original ship date is not a paper launch.
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#28
Andy77
BenetanegiaBecause a paper launch is when you review your products and don't sell them after a later date. AMD paper launched HD7970 because they made reviews in December, but retail availability didn't happen until January.
So having reviewers taking a good look at them early on means a paper launch?... I don't believe it to be that way.

A paper launch is not having product after the launch... it doesn't mater if it's that day or the week after, but after the launch a shortage should NOT follow. AMD released the cards on their respective days, availability was dim, same happened a year before, but it gradually improved. Now all GCN lines are available with plenty of inventory. GK104 on the other hand was launched, nv boasted it has product, they did have some, but now newegg is all out of stock, clearly demand in US was high and product was scarce. Here, E-EU, only last two days one supplier reports having plenty in stock, while most are non-existent and some limited. AMD on the other hand has plenty of product here as well. And the new reports of TSMC's capacity shortage is not helping nv's argument of non-papery launch.
BenetanegiaIntead they chose to take advantage of the situation and make a bigger profit, rising prices and using the shrtage as an excuse.
Well, if you look at the prices, the top cards have always been around these figures. I remember the GTX200 prices, same as now. If they could have been lower... maybe, but if TSMC keeps reporting problems, how can AMD and NV make profit without having sufficient product (in the near future) for a healthy sale? Also, lowering prices would mean sacrificing margins for their older series. Maybe when inventories of those run out, the current generation will see a price reduction.
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#29
N3M3515
"And meanwhile Intel is churning out 22nm like nothing."

"tsmc; amd; nvidia cartel for speculate with high prices?"
Posted on Reply
#30
Benetanegia
Andy77So having reviewers taking a good look at them early on means a paper launch?... I don't believe it to be that way.
A paper launch is the situation in which a product is compared or tested against other products, despite the fact that it is not available to the public at the time. Generally the term is applied to the computer and gaming industry, although it is not limited to that.
dictionary.sensagent.com/paper+launch/en-en/

Whether you believe it to be that way or not that's a paper launch. Scarce availability is scarce availability. Paper launch is paper launch. No one could get an HD7970 when it was reviewed. The GTX680 could be bought the morning that it got reviewed.

I said that I agree in that both situations are just as bad, but one is a paper launch, the other one isn't.

Though, at this point we don't know if there's scarcity of GTX680 because they didn't make enough cards or if it's because demand is much higher than for HD7970. Anywaym you could not get a HD7970 2 weeks after release either.
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#31
m1dg3t
So bene you're saying this based on the 25 680's that were actually available to the public? Poor basis for an argument IMHO :o

Both companies suck at the moment.
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#32
redeye
xenocideGloFo was part of the reason Bulldozer took so long. TSMC is the only place that isn't Intel running sub-30nm production on a large scale. I believe GloFo is working on it, but I am almost 100% positive IBM isn't. That's the issue with being on the bleeding edge of technological capabilities, you have to deal with these kinds of issues.



Nvidia is building a decent stockpile of their lower offerings before releasing them. AMD did a paper launch so they could announce it when the initial shipments came in, and wait for more to come while the hard launch day approached. Nvidia doesn't want to launch without product on shelves. They are hoping it will fly right off the shelves none-the-less.
"Nvidia doesn't want to launch without product on shelves." still a paper launch, effectively, only a select few that ordered them in the first hour after launch, were able to buy them...

so the new ipad (ipad 3) was paper launched too :roll:.. (sold approx 3 million) . you had to wait either one or two weeks to get it... (depending wherein the world you were...)
again, the original iphone was "paper launched" had to wait two-three weeks... :laugh:

thus a paper-launch is were you don't have enough product for 80% of those that want it... which is both AMD and Nvidia.
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