AMD Has TSMC Make More 40nm Fusion Processors

It would appear that recent events on the IT market have created conditions that placed Advanced Micro Devices in the position where it can't meet APU demand, so it seems it increased orders with TSMC for APUs.

End-users that have been following the news will know that, last month, both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices unveiled and/or promoted complete new PC platforms.

The Santa Clara, California-based company delivered Sandy Bridge chips and 6-Series Cougar point chipsets, while AMD provided the Fusion architecture.

Then, Intel discovered a nasty design flaw in the Cougar Point, which let to the stopping of all sales of motherboards and notebooks based on it.

For those that need a reminder, the problem led to the gradual degradation of SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, impacting upon functionality.

Granted, fixed B3-stepping chipsets have since started shipping, but notebooks and platforms won't be ready until March or April, 2011.

Basically, a fairly serious vacuum was left behind, as OEMs are striving to replace sold units and not selling defective mainboards and notebooks.

This, in turn, led to a significant rise in demand for AMD-based products, and while the Sunnyvale, California-based outfit didn't really have things on par with the better Sandy Bridge CPUs, demand still spiked.

The Zacate and Ontario APUs (accelerated processing units) were the ones that are said to be most popular, and supply is tight in both Europe and the US.

That said, AMD placed more 40nm chip orders with TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), intent on getting all new capacity from the 12-inch fab (Fab 14's phase 4 facilities).

Starting next month, the CPU, APU and GPU maker will go on to promoting its Fusion chips in China while continuing to work towards alleviating the Brazos shortage.

What remains to be seen is how effective the world's second greatest CPU maker is in building up its inventories.