GlobalFoundries Halts 7nm Development

[Lurick]

Today, GlobalFoundries announced that it is immediately halting all 7nm development and will not move forward with any 7nm node production and will instead focus on specialized processes. Additionally, AMD has announced that it's moving all production to TSMC in the wake of this announcement by GF.

 

Quote

GlobalFoundries on Monday announced an important strategy shift. The contract maker of semiconductors decided to cease development of bleeding edge manufacturing technologies and stop all work on its 7LP (7 nm) fabrication processes, which will not be used for any client. Instead, the company will focus on specialized process technologies for clients in emerging high-growth markets. These technologies will initially be based on the company’s 14LPP/12LP platform and will include RF, embedded memory, and low power features. Because of the strategy shift, GF will cut 5% of its staff as well as renegotiate its WSA and IP-related deals with AMD and IBM. In a bid to understand more what is going on, we sat down with Gary Patton, CTO of GlobalFoundries.

 

I think it's interesting to see them make such a rapid turn in such a short time. Whether this will mean better processors for other products though is still yet to be seen (and probably won't for a couple years). I hope AMD can continue pushing forward with their 7nm process at TSMC without much issue.

 

 

Article: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13277/globalfoundries-stops-all-7nm-development

 

 

Edit: Re-read the article and it looks like AMD designed their 7nm process for TSMC anyway so this shouldn't have much, if any, impact on their 7nm process (hopefully)

[ScratchCat]

Vega will be delayed. Again

 

AMD really cannot catch a break with high end GPUs

 

The limit of node sizes with current (non EUV) technology may have arrived with both Intel and GF practically giving up on it (10nm will not be in high volume products for Intel for a long time). 

[Brooksie359]

2 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Today, GlobalFoundries announced that it is immediately halting all 7nm development and will not move forward with any 7nm node production and will instead focus on specialized processes. Additionally, AMD has announced that it's moving all production to TSMC in the wake of this announcement by GF.

 

 

I think it's interesting to see them make such a rapid turn in such a short time. Whether this will mean better processors for other products though is still yet to be seen (and probably won't for a couple years). I hope AMD can continue pushing forward with their 7nm process at TSMC without much issue.

 

 

Article: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13277/globalfoundries-stops-all-7nm-development

Honestly if it allows AMD to get out of its wafer requirements with global foundries then this might actually be a good thing for AMD.

[GoldenLag]

Hopefully this was a long time coming in terms of AMD planning or we could see a significant delay......

[Lurick]

2 minutes ago, ScratchCat said:

7nm Vega will be delayed then. 

 

AMD really cannot catch a break with high end GPUs

 

1 minute ago, GoldenLag said:

Hopefully this was a long time coming in terms of AMD planning or we could see a significant delay......

 

Just double checked the article and AMD has designed 7nm around TSMC from the beginning to this shouldn't cause much, if any, delay for them. Edited the OP to reflect that too. Not sure if they were planning GPU and CPU at TSMC or had them split but hopefully both were planned for TSMC and we don't get hit with a delay.

[GoldenLag]

1 minute ago, Lurick said:

 

 

Just double checked the article and AMD has designed around TSMC from the beginning to this shouldn't cause much, if any, delay for them. Edited the OP to reflect that too. Not sure if they were planning GPU and CPU at TSMC or had them split but hopefully both were planned for TSMC and we don't get hit with a delay.

But even so, relying on a single foundry for anything isnt great

[Lurick]

1 minute ago, GoldenLag said:

But even so, relying on a single foundry for anything isnt great

Definitely agree. I'm hoping someone else eventually comes into the mix because with TSMC being the sole provider for AMD at this point, or at least I think they are, if something happened to them we could be in for a world of hurt.

[Coaxialgamer]

Damn . Something BAD must've happened . As far as i was aware the tech was pretty far along , nearly production ready.

WTF could make a company ditch a multi-billion dollar investment like that ?

Well at least AMD has TSMC

[ScratchCat]

Just now, GoldenLag said:

But even so, relying on a single foundry for anything isnt great

AMD doesn't have the resources to waste on creating a backup design. They have 2-4 GPU dies across 2 generations while NVIDIA has G?100, 102, 104, 106 etc plus various spin offs in a single generation.

[Brooksie359]

8 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

But even so, relying on a single foundry for anything isnt great

I mean alot of companies rely on a single foundry for certain product lines. It actually doesn't make a ton of sense to try and design a product that is using two different foundries seeing as they likely would produce them slightly differently. Didn't TSMC recently expand their foundries?

[GoldenLag]

10 minutes ago, ScratchCat said:

AMD doesn't have the resources to waste on creating a backup design. They have 2-4 GPU dies across 2 generations while NVIDIA has G?100, 102, 104, 106 etc plus various spin offs in a single generation.

 

2 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

I mean alot of companies rely on a single foundry for certain product lines. It actually doesn't make a ton of sense to try and design a product that is using two different foundries seeing as they likely would produce them slightly differently. Didn't TSMC recently expand their foundries?

The issue is if the company your rely on makes a miss-step in node design, putting them behind the competition (this case intel). We see how intel is stuck for the time being, intel cant swap fabs, but if they could they would

[ScratchCat]

6 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

 

The issue is if the company your rely on makes a miss-step in node design, putting them behind the competition (this case intel). We see how intel is stuck for the time being, intel cant swap fabs, but if they could they would

TSMC is then probably the safest move. AMD's main competitors are NVIDIA and Intel, they cannot use Intel's fabs but if they use the same as NVIDIA they will not be put at a disadvantage compared to the competitor if the fab falls behind.

[rawrdaysgoby]

Why???? This makes so little sense....

[mr moose]

3 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

 

The issue is if the company your rely on makes a miss-step in node design, putting them behind the competition (this case intel). We see how intel is stuck for the time being, intel cant swap fabs, but if they could they would

Not entirely stuck, they have been working on 7nm just like everyone else, in fact they have a whole fab plant waiting for their 7nm process to be ready. So when Fab42 starts getting machinery moved in you will know they are ready to mass produce 7nm.

[Trixanity]

21 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

I mean alot of companies rely on a single foundry for certain product lines. It actually doesn't make a ton of sense to try and design a product that is using two different foundries seeing as they likely would produce them slightly differently. Didn't TSMC recently expand their foundries?

Apple tried the dual sourcing scheme and it seemed it only lasted a generation so that should tell us something. And yes, I believe TSMC is expanding.

 

33 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

Damn . Something BAD must've happened . As far as i was aware the tech was pretty far along , nearly production ready.

WTF could make a company ditch a multi-billion dollar investment like that ?

Well at least AMD has TSMC

From what I can read they realized they could never compete with TSMC and Samsung despite keeping pace so far. They've been bleeding for years and investors got tired of it. They want money in return. Not billion dollar investment upon billion dollar investment which has allowed the company to hang on by the skin of their teeth. The main problem is AMD and IBM were their main customers by virtue of agreements made during their respective spin-off of Foundry businesses. By next year they'll have little volume from AMD as first gen Epyc and Polaris (and some Vega) is the only business they'll see. There is no way the wafer agreement isn't void considering they gave up the ability to deliver. So they'll continue to provide wafers for AMD's long term chip commitments.

 

It seems to be purely a business decision. They'd need to expand to keep up with demand and the wallet has been closed. So they'll focus on other things where they can compete. 

48 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

Hopefully this was a long time coming in terms of AMD planning or we could see a significant delay......

No delay. AMD has so far not mentioned Glofo at all in their initial product stack. Only TSMC. Vega 20 and Rome have both been TSMC from the start. Also, I'm quite sure AMD were the first to know of the shift in strategy. Given the nature of their relationship and intertwined businesses, they are privy to a lot more than would otherwise be par for the course.

 

I don't think Navi or other Zen2 products have been affected but it remains to be seen.

[cj09beira]

me is sad i was expecting ibm's ip to help glo fo quite a bit, their 7nm also seemed better than tsmc's by a bit, and they were also gonna use a new material for the interconnects too, 

i would understand if they would stay at 7nm but on 14 nm is disappointing after all its equivalent to intel's 20nm 

[Trixanity]

2 minutes ago, cj09beira said:

me is sad i was expecting ibm's ip to help glo fo quite a bit, their 7nm also seemed better than tsmc's by a bit, and they were also gonna use a new material for the interconnects too, 

i would understand if they would stay at 7nm but on 14 nm is disappointing after all its equivalent to intel's 20nm 

I suspect they don't intend to make a lot of high performance processors anymore. They seem to want to do low power stuff in volume instead. They'll keep their finFET around but I think their FDX processes is where they'll focus their developments as it seems to be an area they could potentially own the market of.

[TVwazhere]

I just heard the news from my local news station. Hopped online and found this from the times union

 

Quote

GlobalFoundries CEO Tom Caulfield, who had previously been general manager of Fab 8, has also been saying the company needs to get leaner in order to become more profitable so it can compete with its largest competitors, mainly Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

"The program is part of a companywide initiative to improve the competitiveness of our cost structure relative to industry peers," Grasso had said

https://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Layoffs-underway-at-GlobalFoundries-in-Malta-13011265.php

 

Looks like for all their efforts, TSMC is still kicking their asses and they're shifting to grab more market share. The article here goes on to say 7nm processes wont be affected, but everywhere else including my news station said the opposite. Mind you, My news station telling the public "GF will be halting 7nm chips and focusing on 12/14nm chips" to me was funny because I'm sure 99.5% of the people watching didnt know what that meant and dont care unless their jobs are on the line.

[S w a t s o n]

18 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

No delay. AMD has so far not mentioned Glofo at all in their initial product stack. Only TSMC. Vega 20 and Rome have both been TSMC from the start. Also, I'm quite sure AMD were the first to know of the shift in strategy. Given the nature of their relationship and intertwined businesses, they are privy to a lot more than would otherwise be par for the course.

 

I don't think Navi or other Zen2 products have been affected but it remains to be seen.

Maybe not a delay but it was a not so well kept secret that GloFo was to be used for 7nm because of capacity issues. They specifically used TSMC compatible libraries, no matter how you look at it this is pretty bad for AMD, not crushing but not good. I guess Jim Anderson was the sacrifce?

[lightningterror]

A little more information

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3300620/components-processors/amd-loses-another-key-executive-jim-anderson-as-it-shifts-manufacturing-to-tsmc.html

 

[cj09beira]

15 minutes ago, S w a t s o n said:

Maybe not a delay but it was a not so well kept secret that GloFo was to be used for 7nm because of capacity issues. They specifically used TSMC compatible libraries, no matter how you look at it this is pretty bad for AMD, not crushing but not good. I guess Jim Anderson was the sacrifce?

you might be on to something, this might be related

 

 

anyway, where can ibm build their monsters now, can tsmc provide a 5.4 ghz 7nm process

[Trixanity]

12 minutes ago, S w a t s o n said:

Maybe not a delay but it was a not so well kept secret that GloFo was to be used for 7nm because of capacity issues. They specifically used TSMC compatible libraries, no matter how you look at it this is pretty bad for AMD, not crushing but not good. I guess Jim Anderson was the sacrifce?

From what I can tell, Jim Anderson moved up in the world so I don't see him being sacrificed. He couldn't be promoted any further.

 

We don't know how long AMD has known about this but they've probably known for months.

 

Either way, plans change. AMD must have had their affairs in order by now. So either TSMC has the capacity or we're looking at Samsung for a secondary partner. There are no other options. However we should hope for the former. Samsung hasn't looked strong when it comes to high performance chips. In fact even for low power TSMC has looked consistently stronger.

[Stefan Payne]

Well, this doesn't come too unexpected to be honest. GF ran on lifesupport and didn't really make much money and was infused with Oilmoney...

 

And now they stopped, so GF stopped R&D of 7nm, especially since AMD is the only noticable customer. Maybe a bit of IBM.

But that's about it...

 

1 hour ago, Coaxialgamer said:

Damn . Something BAD must've happened .

 

 

They ran out of money...

[asus killer]

i told you so on the other topic this morning

[Princess Luna]

Now where are all those Intel haters making jokes about 10nm at? two sides of the coin eh?