“SemiAccurate has not heard it directly from TSMC yet, but given the circumstances, we believe this report to be accurate. As we pointed out earlier in the week, some of the 32nm processes at TSMC are delayed and somewhat underperforming. Given how well 40nm has shaped up, or not, the earlier news is likely only the tip of the iceberg. As far as we can tell, this will be the first time TSMC has canceled a node entirely.”Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- SparkFun product used for immoral hacking @ Hack a Day
- After 35 Years, Another Message Sent From Arecibo @ Slashdot
- NVIDIA- Past, Present & Future: An Interview with Jen Hsun Huang @ t-break
- Enable CMD Scrolling from the Keyboard @ OCModShop
- Terry Makedon “CatalystMaker” Interview @ InsideHW
- HotHardware and TechVi Video Podcast #4 – Radeon HD 5970, GeForce GT 240, GPU-Accelerated Flash and MSI’s New Nettop
- WindowBlinds 7 Review @ OCModShop
- Win Creative Gigaworks T20 Series II Speakers @ t-break
- Win a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! @ t-break
- Win 10 copies of McAfee Total Protection @ t-break
Play starts on the 40, fumble on 32 … recovery on the 28?
The difficulties at TSMC with their 40nm process are very familiar to anyone who watches the industry or has tried to by an HD5xxx series or 4770 graphics card. The volume is tiny which has also had the effect of bringing prices up. The same issues have occurred in their 32nm process, though with less song and dance as there are no retail cards with a 32nm process GPU. According to SemiAccurate, TSMC has made the decision to stop work on their 32nm process and head straight to 28nm. This makes a lot of sense as most of their customers plan on doing the same thing and jumping from developing 40nm processors straight to 28nm thanks to the rapid development of the new process. Of course, a lot of the procedures used in the 32nm process carry over to the 28nm leaving room for speculation that the issues TSMC has had with yields will continue.
