Top contract chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) said on Tuesday it may start charging more for its higher-end chips as a result of the higher production costs, inflation and oil prices. "Average selling prices have been falling and profits have been under pressure, and we have to work together to create value," Jason Chen, a company vice president in charge of global sales and marketing, told a TSMC technology symposium. He specified that price changes would be mostly for chips made by advanced process technology, but did not say how big they would be or when they would occur. It's also unclear whether this will reflect on prices of the next generation NVIDIA video cards. As you may know, TSMC currently produces most of the GeForce graphics processors. "We face some structural profit pressure. In the short term, we also face pressure from inflation and oil prices," Chen said. Continue reading the full story here.

According to the Taiwanese Economic News site, NVIDIA is planning to increase production in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) and United Microelectronics (UMC), in order to keep up with the strong demand for its graphics chips. Throughout the last quarter NVIDIA had contracted TSMC to make a record 50,000 wafers of 65nm chips and UMC to make 7,000-9,000 wafers of the same chips. Now industry watchers forecast TSMC will produce up to 60,000 wafers for NVIDIA, while the volume production of UMC will rise to 10,000-12,000 wafers over the next quarter. With the strong demand for NVIDIA cards growing, the company's executives estimate to beat the record revenue of $935.3 million achieved for the same period of last year.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) might be planning to outsource some of its CPU production to TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) in the second half of the this year it was reported today. This move will help AMD to clear some of its manufacturing equipment and help lower the company's operating costs.

Although Hector Ruiz, CEO of AMD did not mention any plans to outsource production during the company's recent investors conference, the industry sources revealed that TSMC has already started testing procedures for a SOI manufacturing process in order to land manufacturing orders for AMD's Fusion CPUs. The increase in outsourcing could allow AMD to sell off some of its manufacturing equipment and help lower the company's operating costs, noted sources at AMD's partners. AMD's current goals are to return to profitability in the first half of 2009 and to grab back a 30% worldwide market share by the second quarter in 2009, noted the sources.

Intel Corporation, Samsung Electronics and TSMC have reached agreement on the need for industry-wide collaboration to target a transition to larger, 450mm-sized wafers starting in 2012. The transition to larger wafers will enable continued growth of the semiconductor industry and helps maintain a reasonable cost structure for future integrated circuit manufacturing and applications.

Responding to IBM and its development partners that took the lead in the nm battle by announcing the availability of a high-k and metal-gate 32nm offering, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) today outlined more details about its 32nm process. Rick Tsai, president and chief executive of the company said "We will have high-k and metal-gate at 32nm," during a keynote at the 2008 Technology Symposium. Jack Sun, vice president of research and development, also indicated that TSMC will develop a third-generation triple-gate oxide technology for its 32nm low-power process. For its 32nm high-performance process, TSMC will offer a high-k and metal gate technology, Sun added.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) recently unveiled the foundry's first 40 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process technology. The new node supports a performance-driven general purpose (40G) technology and a power-efficient low power (40LP) technology. It features a full design service package and a design ecosystem that covers verified third party IP, third party EDA tools, TSMC-generated SPICE models and foundation IPs. First wafers out are expected in the second quarter of 2008.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company today announced it has developed the first 32-nanometer (nm) technology that supports both analog and digital functionality. The company made its announcement through a paper presented at today's IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington, DC. The paper also revealed that the company had proven the full functionality of the 2Mb SRAM test chip with the smallest bit-cell at the 32nm node.

Moving towards a fab-lite strategy, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) is working on a long-awaited foundry deal with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC), according to a report from Barron's. The report cites two investment banking firms as its source, including Caris & Co. and Lehman Brothers. According to the report, AMD could have some of its processors made on a foundry basis by TSMC "as soon as the 2008 first half". At present, AMD makes the bulk of its processors in house, but also has a foundry alliance with Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. of Singapore. The move is geared to cut costs and offset ongoing losses. AMD is also said to be holding discussions about selling its new Fab 38 plant in Germany to TSMC.