Will ATI join in TSMC's 130 nano fun?

Motorola, Fab Six' biggest customer, has seen its DSP production reach 90% yield rates. Problems at Fab Six reportedly resulted in a loss of 3,000 wafers earlier this year. Transmeta and Via both had their 130 nanometer chips put on the back burner for some months because of some difficulties in that process, causing havoc with their roadmaps and delaying products for months.

Nvidia's NV 30 chip was also delayed for 4 months because of maturity problems with the line.

Fab Six currently produces 15,000 to 20,000 wafers, which consists mostly of Motorola's DSP chips, Qualcomm chips in volume production, and Nvidia's NV30 graphics chip in test production.

This breakthrough in yield rates is expected to convince customers like ATI Technologies and Altera to advance from 150 nanometer technology up to the 130 nanometer node. TSMC is reportedly in talks with major customers about purchasing by wafer rather than by die.

ATI has already designed its next generation R350 and RV300 chips for the 150 nanometer process for launch in Spring 2003, very soon after Nvidia's NV30 ships in low volume in February. ATI's R300 VPUs are shipping in high volume in Radeon 9700 and Radeon 9500 Pro and Amateur boards, which allows consumers to find more of them at retail, and at a cheaper price too.

However, ATI's R400 super VPU chip is scheduled to be launched in July of 2003 on the 130 nanometer in very high volume. Still, ATI faces the problem of how to make a successful 130 nanometer VPU while Nvidia has already gone through its growing pains. µ

See Also
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