Wednesday, July 3rd 2019
NVIDIA Manufacturing Turing GPUs at Samsung Korea Fab, 11nm?
During our disassembly of the GeForce RTX 2060 Super, we noticed a shocking detail. The 12 nm "TU106" GPU on which it is based, has the marking "Korea." We know for a fact that TSMC does not have any fabs there. The only Korean semiconductor manufacturer capable of contract-manufacturing a piece of silicon as complex as a GPU, for a designer with the energy-efficiency OCD as NVIDIA, is Samsung.
What makes this interesting is that Samsung does not officially have a 12 nm FinFET process. It has 14 nm, and the 11LPP, a 11 nm nodelet, which the company designed to compete with TSMC 12 nm. It would hence be really interesting to hear from NVIDIA on whether they've scaled out the "TU106" to 14LPP, or down to 11LPP at Samsung. It's interesting to note that the shrink in transistor sizes in these nodelets doesn't affect die-sizes. We hence see no die-size difference between these Korea-marked chips, and those marked "Taiwan." We've reached out to NVIDIA for comment.
Update July 3rd: NVIDIA got back to us
What makes this interesting is that Samsung does not officially have a 12 nm FinFET process. It has 14 nm, and the 11LPP, a 11 nm nodelet, which the company designed to compete with TSMC 12 nm. It would hence be really interesting to hear from NVIDIA on whether they've scaled out the "TU106" to 14LPP, or down to 11LPP at Samsung. It's interesting to note that the shrink in transistor sizes in these nodelets doesn't affect die-sizes. We hence see no die-size difference between these Korea-marked chips, and those marked "Taiwan." We've reached out to NVIDIA for comment.
Update July 3rd: NVIDIA got back to us
NVIDIAThe answer is really simple and these markings are not new. Other Turing GPUs have had these markings in the past. The chip is made at TSMC, but packaged in various locations. This one was done in Korea, hence why his says "Korea".
On an unrelated note: We already use both TSMC and Samsung, and qualify each of them for every process node. We can't comment in any further detail on future plans, but both remain terrific partners.
33 Comments on NVIDIA Manufacturing Turing GPUs at Samsung Korea Fab, 11nm?
EDIT: I see the link. Nice, I haven't seen those before.
It is kind of sensationalist though.
Is it just me or does that response make this 'news' article look like a reach (at best). Instead of keeping the foot close to the mouth for insertion by getting 'news' out there, why not get the answer first? I'd rather have not seen this speculation come up only to be bunked a day later.
Nvidia says TSMC, TSMC makes chips in Taiwan, GPU says Korea. It was noteworthy. At least now we have all learned TSMC packages chips in Korea :P
GPU markings denote location of packaging not manufacturing. Like the Samsung-made GP107 had Taiwan written on it.
Edit: Not every tech news has to be about groundbreaking stuff, sometimes it's about little things/smalltalk.
Edit: Even when the size could be similar, there wouldn't be the exact same capacitor placement around the chip.
I run into it due to the forums. Lol!