UPDATED: TSMC woes (possible GPU shortage... Again)

[Terryv]

Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pcmag.com/news/366211/tsmc-may-have-created-another-graphics-card-shortage%3famp=1

 

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Some of the photoresist chemicals TSMC imported turned out to not be pure enough to produce usable silicon wafers, which are the thin circular discs the chips are constructed on.

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The problem is, TSMC already used the imported chemicals on tens of thousands of wafers, all of which now need to be scrapped.

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Nvidia isn't the only company relying on TSMC's 16/12nm production line, with HiSilicon, Huawei, and MediaTek also using it. However, it seems likely Nvidia is going to be the hardest hit from so many wafers being unusable. And if that wasn't enough of a headache for Nvidia to deal with, rival AMD is set to launch its new 7nm Radeon graphics card next month.

This is bad, looks like Turing will get much more expensive in the short term at least.

 

I wonder if this is the reason Nvidia just announced lower projected earnings.

 

UPDATE: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13905/tsmc-chip-yields-hit-by-bad-chemical-batch

 

Looks like the wafers are salvageable, they are still expecting to ship most of them by the end of Q1 the rest are shipping Q2.

 

There's no telling what effect this will have on silicon quality.

[Arika]

4 minutes ago, Terryv said:

rival AMD is set to launch its new 7nm Radeon graphics card next month.

didn't AMD use TSMC for their 7nm stuff as well?

[porina]

Could use a list of who uses who for what product so we can start to figure out what might be affected...

[Terryv]

8 minutes ago, Arika S said:

didn't AMD use TSMC for their 7nm stuff as well?

Their 7nm GPU's for sure are TSMC. I'm not sure about ryzen.

 

This shouldn't affect AMD though, as this only affects 16/12nm products.

[GoldenLag]

13 minutes ago, Arika S said:

didn't AMD use TSMC for their 7nm stuff as well?

7nm productionline seems to be untouched. Good news for AMD as their entire 2019 is based around 7nm

[porina]

Radeon VII - TSMC 7nm

Vega 64 - GoFlo 14nm

RX 580 - GloFo 14nm

RX 590 - GloFo/Samsung 12nm

Ryzen (Zen+) - GoFlo 12LP

Ryzen (Zen) - GoFlo 14LPP

 

RTX 20 series - TSMC 12nm "FFN"

GTX 10 series - TSMC 16nm

 

Pulled from various news/reviews. Any problems at TSMC will likely hit nvidia as that's who they seem to use. AMD are limited in exposure with only the Radeon VII of the products I've looked at. 

[Crunchy Dragon]

15 minutes ago, Arika S said:

didn't AMD use TSMC for their 7nm stuff as well?

I think for their CPUs, they use TSMC.

 

I don't recall what they're doing for their GPUs.

[Terryv]

1 minute ago, porina said:

Radeon VII - TSMC 7nm

Vega 64 - GoFlo 14nm

RX 580 - GloFo 14nm

RX 590 - GloFo/Samsung 12nm

Ryzen (Zen+) - GoFlo 12LP

Ryzen (Zen) - GoFlo 14LPP

 

RTX 20 series - TSMC 12nm "FFN"

GTX 10 series - TSMC 16nm

 

Pulled from various news/reviews. Any problems at TSMC will likely hit nvidia as that's who they seem to use. AMD are limited in exposure with only the Radeon VII of the products I've looked at. 

7nm and 14nm isn't affected, it's only 16/12nm

[Belgarathian]

AMD almost completely dodge the bullet on this one. Lucky break!

[porina]

3 minutes ago, Terryv said:

7nm and 14nm isn't affected, it's only 16/12nm

I can't see that mentioned in the original link, or the source they used.

[Terryv]

1 minute ago, porina said:

I can't see that mentioned in the original link, or the source they used.

The source only mentions the 16/12nm production line. I'll assume the rest is ok until further notice.

[yian88]

58 minutes ago, Arika S said:

didn't AMD use TSMC for their 7nm stuff as well?

The news is not 100% accurate, but according to other news sources only nvidia/mediatek/huawei will be afected, and it will be a short-pause of the production not a major one.

https://www.slashgear.com/trouble-at-tsmc-huawei-nvidia-apple-chipmaker-sees-chemical-issue-28563833/

We dont know if this includes the 7nm fab, the article mentions fab 14B and 16/12nm which means old chips already on the market not new 7nm ones.

So anything on TSMC 7nm announced by companies is probably on track for launch and unaffected.

[BananaInSandals]

Tin Silicon foil hat

 

It's a conspiracy by TSMC and AMD trying to pish the price up!

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Arika S said:

didn't AMD use TSMC for their 7nm stuff as well?

As well as Qualcomm, Mediatek and Apple. 

[Taf the Ghost]

If it was about 7nm production, Apple would be the headline.

 

However, Nvidia doesn't produce everything at TSMC. The lower SKU parts have been at Samsung this generation, and it's also quite possible that the upcoming 1660-class are as well.

[Brooksie359]

2 hours ago, BananaInSandals said:

Tin Silicon foil hat

 

It's a conspiracy by TSMC and AMD trying to pish the price up!

Lose ton of money on having to throw out a ton of wafers to increace the price of the end product and still get paid the same due to wafer agreements. That's some next level business strats. Going for the long game I see. 

[Beskamir]

Well then, guess it's a really good thing I got a heavily discounted rtx 2080 yesterday.

[Orangeator]

Wow, so overpriced cards are about to get more expensive?

[Terryv]

OP updated

 

[S w a t s o n]

As I understand it, this only affect 16nm class wafers, 7nm unaffected