14 DAY TRIAL // For the most part of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) had serious problems when it came to supplying AMD and NVIDIA with chips based on the 40nm manufacturing process technology. Then, some time ago, the foundry announced that it had finally gotten over the issues and was even investing heavily into expanding the capacity. Nevertheless, even despite these measures, recent reports suggest that, even now, TSMC may not be able to meet all the orders that its customers place.
Since TSMC makes both NVIDIA and AMD chips, it is always under pressure, especially around the times of new releases. Sure enough, NVIDIA plans to soon launch the GTX 460, powered by the GF104 GPU, and also intends to bring out GF108 products later on, by autumn to be exact. As such, the Santa Clara, California-based GPU maker placed a fairly large amount of orders with the Taiwanese supplier during March and April. This, of course, was less than fortuitous for AMD.
That NVIDIA would place many orders, for one, means that it plans on making a strong push on the GPU market. However, what is a more immediate concern is that the actual number of such orders was high enough for TSMC's capacity to feel stretched. In other words, the foundry can't meet the demand on the part of AMD. Most likely, supply priority will be given to NVIDIA and Qualcomm, the two major clients.
As it is, there is the possibility of Advanced Micro Devices facing shortages throughout the entire second half of the year, even as the GTX 460 card, priced between $230 and $250, will emerge to take on the ATI Radeon HD 5830. Later, in August, the GTX 455/450 ($129-$179) will enter a deadlock with the ATI Radeon HD 5600/5500 adapters.