TSMC Gives NVIDIA Priority for 28 nm Manufacturing

[HumanSmoke]

I swear I read that AMD wasn't hot on the HP as they where so far out in front back in Sept. They didn't want to chance their launch on the unproven, and figured they could build Tahiti on HPL which didn't differ from 40Nm. Could that explain the now 1Ghz 7970... the originals witg the lower clocks, and Nvidia saying, "expecting more from the HD 7900". Could AMD have now moved to "HP" since TSMC stopped production and cleaned up the manufacturing. Is there a way to know what a chip was made with, other than what we hear?

Quite possible. The early (Sept-Dec 2011) scuttlebutt was indeed that AMD were going to use 28HPL, and the stock voltage for the HD 7970 at ~1.17v would indicate that (according to the TSMC link I included) HPL would be a more likely suspect than HP. The yield problem seems to be related to HP and not HPL according to sources ( 6 of 10 IHV's affected- contrary to to the feelgood quotes coming from other sources). HP was supposed to only come on stream in March, so if that's indeed true then Cayman will be HPL...although "Low Power" is kind of subjective since the board has 300+ watts of usage potential. To make things worse, Caymans SRAM is indeed 28nm HP (!) How the RAM IC's could be produced in December when the 28nm HP line only came online in March is a head scratcher ( not interested enough to fork out $7000 for the report though).
If the "GHz Edition" launches with a ≤ 1.0v VDDC I guess that will answer most questions. Although, if 28nm HP has yield issues I'm not entirely sure why AMD would be willing to move production over to it. They could, I suppose, go with both (presumeably) HP and HPL -but who would buy the 925M version?

 

[Casecutter]

I suppose, go with both (presumeably) HP and HPL -but who would buy the 925M version?

Well if AMD prices old HLP 925Mhz at <$400 on a PCB that's de-contented they could sell. Though with the 670 looking so good, I still like the idea of calling the 925Mhz the "new" 7950, and drop the 7950 to a 7930... and make all 7970 as Ghz! I don't know how that could sit with the buying pubic, kind of like a free performance boost for those who held out? Is it worse than more renaming? Idk

Then is it me or is it really is starting to suck with these out-of-sync launch cycle's, the enthusiast seem to get shaken down (even worse than ever but first adopters always appear that way) if the they don't make the right move and the right time. And even AMD/Nvidia are now seeing move to early and/or wait for TSMC is a two edge sword.

Good info and a good discussion!