AMD Plans to Use Glass Substrates in its 2025/2026 Lineup of High-Performance Processors

[AleksandarK]

AMD reportedly plans to incorporate glass substrates into its high-performance system-in-packages (SiPs) sometimes between 2025 and 2026. Glass substrates offer several advantages over traditional organic substrates, including superior flatness, thermal properties, and mechanical strength. These characteristics make them well-suited for advanced SiPs containing multiple chiplets, especially in data center applications where performance and durability are critical. The adoption of glass substrates aligns with the industry's broader trend towards more complex chip designs. As leading-edge process technologies become increasingly expensive and yield gains diminish, manufacturers turn to multi-chiplet designs to improve performance. AMD's current EPYC server processors already incorporate up to 13 chiplets, while its Instinct AI accelerators feature 22 pieces of silicon. A more extreme testament is Intel's Ponte Vecchio, which utilized 63 tiles in a single package.

Glass substrates could enable AMD to create even more complex designs without relying on costly interposers, potentially reducing overall production expenses. This technology could further boost the performance of AI and HPC accelerators, which are a growing market and require constant innovation. The glass substrate market is heating up, with major players like Intel, Samsung, and LG Innotek also investing heavily in this technology. Market projections suggest explosive growth, from $23 million in 2024 to $4.2 billion by 2034. Last year, Intel committed to investing up to 1.3 trillion Won (almost one billion USD) to start applying glass substrates to its processors by 2028. Everything suggests that glass substrates are the future of chip design, and we await to see first high-volume production designs.



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[Nanochip]

AMD is clearly trying to steal Intel’s lunch. As it should.

 

[thesmokingman]

AMD is clearly trying to steal Intel’s lunch. As it should.

You mean they already did lol.

 

[64K]

AMD is clearly trying to steal Intel’s lunch. As it should.

I'm a long time Intel user (until the next build) but it just never gets old to see Intel getting spanked by a corp that they dismissed as if they were nothing not too long ago. Another serving of humble pie for Intel?

 

[Nanochip]

You mean they already did lol.

Well if you look at market share, Intel is still ahead. But AMD is not letting its foot off the accelerator. Pedal to the metal. Doing more with less. Although intel’s upcoming lakes appear interesting. arrow lake, lunar lake, panther lake, nova lake.

 

[P4-630]

Copycats.

 

[Nanochip]

I'm a long time Intel user (until the next build) but it just never gets old to see Intel getting spanked by a corp that they dismissed as if they were nothing not too long ago. Another serving of humble pie for Intel?

Indeed. AMD is doing more with less. Their stock price has had a meteoric rise. And has been very rewarding to see it grow.

 

[Daven]

Processor go crack!

 

[Neo_Morpheus]

For a while now, AMD have been selling better cpus than intel but intel still has a bigger market share and some “crazy” loyalty from Dell.

Then again, those two were found guilty of illegal practices against AMD yet something tells me that they are still doing the same.

Worst, people conveniently “forgot” intel ilegal practices that almost killed AMD and instead, still want AMD to disappear.

Personally, I want Qualcomm to replace intel and go toe to toe with AMD.

Yes, i know, Qualcomm is as bad or worse than Intel, but still.

 

[SL2]

For a while now, AMD have been selling better cpus than intel but intel still has a bigger market share and some “crazy” loyalty from Dell.

I think Dell has changed on that point lately. They made the only Radeon 7900M laptop that I know of.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I think Dell has changed on that point lately. They made the only Radeon 7900M laptop that I know of.

Let me know when they start making AMD business laptops. Or more then the cheapest latitudes.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

Indeed. AMD is doing more with less. Their stock price has had a meteoric rise. And has been very rewarding to see it grow.

More with less is an understatement. For the majority of the ryzen era, AMD was working with a $2 billion R&D budget while Intel had one around $15 billion (and Nvidia had one around $5 billion). Only recently did AMD increase that to $5 billion while Intel increased there's to around $17.5 Billion.....AMD is basically beating Intel and competing with Nvidia while both are outspending AMD. As far as I know, I can't think of another example of a company doing as well as AMD while it's direct competition has every advantage with respect to finances and resources.

All that money is basically what has kept Intel afloat and allowed them to not lose even more marketshare, they've basically been selling chips at cost (or at the very least accepting much smaller profit margins than theyre used to) and giving OEMs huge sums of money to keep AMD chips out of the best laptop models (what Intel calls "Joint Development Funds" and what I call "bribery" and "cartelism") and have basically been resorting to every tactic BUT innovation to stave off AMD....and worst of all it has worked rather well for Intel.

 

[SL2]

Let me know when they start making AMD business laptops. Or more then the cheapest latitudes.

My point was that there are not only cheap models anymore. $2300 isn't cheap, and premium AMD Radeon mobile isn't an easy sell, but for some reason Dell was the only one who did it. They could just have stayed with cheap inspirons, playing it safe like they usually do.

Whatever, I won't buy that brand anyway.

 

[natr0n]

I and many others I'm sure thought glass was always used. I mean cores can chip and crack already.

It's irrelevant though unless it makes a real noticeable difference now.

 

[thesmokingman]

Well if you look at market share, Intel is still ahead. But AMD is not letting its foot off the accelerator. Pedal to the metal. Doing more with less. Although intel’s upcoming lakes appear interesting. arrow lake, lunar lake, panther lake, nova lake.

That's the WRONG way of looking at it. There's what is called existing market share, ie the zillions of Intel cpus already in the market. It will take a longtime to replace those. This is exactly the same concept with EVs. They are growing at great rates yet there's 100 billion ice cars, it will take many decades to replace those at an imaginary clip of 100 million EV a year.

For Intel vs AMD, we are looking at current sales, not existing market share. lol

And AMD has already taken Intel's lunch. Their swap in market cap is hilarious.

 

[Jism]

Is the traditional silicon not glass already?

 

[CyberPomPom]

Is the traditional silicon not glass already?

View attachment 354828

Well, no and no.
Silicon wafers are crystalline so not glass (like panes) even though they are both mostly made out of silicon (the element).
Also here it is not about the wafer but the substrate, on your picture it's the green part with the surface mounted components.
They are switching from organic substrate (reinforced resin) to glass that is better suited for chiplet's connections.

 

[maximumterror]

Is the traditional silicon not glass already?

View attachment 354828

that the green thing on which the processor is glued and the motherboard itself is fiberglass. why? due to acid resistance

 

[ymdhis]

I'm impressed, they mentioned AI only twice in this news release. Such restraint is rare nowadays.

 

[InVasMani]

Did some AI stuff around glass circuits maybe a month or two back ironically. I figured rather than being contingent upon slower copper wiring portions of the chip design will eventually transition away from it and towards fiber optic. That of course depends on a lot of factors, but we're already see example cases of it emerging.

 

[MaMoo]

Does anyone remember ye olde ceramic substrates? From 286 to AMD Athlons I think was the time span.

 

[natr0n]

Does anyone remember ye olde ceramic substrates? From 286 to AMD Athlons I think was the time span.

They had a nice sound like heavy coins.

 

[chrcoluk]

AMD is clearly trying to steal Intel’s lunch. As it should.

Intel take too long to put plans into place, looks like AMD going to give them a spank on this one.

 

[Minus Infinity]

This must be using Samsung. Samsung has already stated it's working onthat time frame to get glass substrates out, at least 1-2 years ahead of Intel. No mention at all TSMC is releasing this decade.

Still, if it is Samsung, I expect a release 2-3 years later after a metric crap ton of problems.

 

[Scrizz]

Did some AI stuff around glass circuits maybe a month or two back ironically. I figured rather than being contingent upon slower copper wiring portions of the chip design will eventually transition away from it and towards fiber optic. That of course depends on a lot of factors, but we're already see example cases of it emerging.
View attachment 354841

you mean like this?

Intel Demonstrates First Fully Integrated Optical I/O Chiplet

Intel's optical compute interconnect chiplet is expected to revolutionize high-speed data processing for AI infrastructure.

www.intel.com