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TSMC 40nm Yields Only at 50%, NVIDIA and ATI Shortage Lasts Through Q1 2010

Although the 40nm process should have matured by now, being more than a year old, TSMC yields are still too low

Dec 4, 2009 08:56 GMT  ·  By
ATI and NVIDIA shortage will extend through Q1 2010
   ATI and NVIDIA shortage will extend through Q1 2010

For quite a few months now, various manufacturing-related issues have been reported concerning TSMC's total yields of the 40nm process. Back in late October, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company stated that the issues related to the 40nm process manufacture would be resolved by the end of December. Now, however, it seems that the company has failed to perform as expected, significantly impairing the ability of both NVIDIA and ATI (AMD) to produce and ship sufficient products.

Normally, seeing how the 40nm process is more than a year old, the company's manufacturing procedures and equipment should have matured enough for yields to reach, at the very least, 90% of the needed amount. Still, according to Fudzilla, yields are at a rather detrimental 50%. Now that TSMC's promise to resolve the shortage by the end of the quarter has failed to be met, estimates point to a prolonged product shortage, which will likely continue to weigh heavily upon the two GPU makers throughout the entire first quarter of 2010.

Given the current situation, both NVIDIA and ATI will be faced with a serious handicap when the products intended for release in Q1 2010 hit the mass-production stage. As far as ATI (AMD) is concerned, the ATI 5000-series graphics-adapter inventories will continue to fail to meet the demand, and this situation will likely extend to ATI's RV870. NVIDIA's Fermi architecture is currently set to start being mass-produced in March 2010, although, given the TSMC manufacturing issues, it is likely that short supply will be a given, as it has been for all 40-nm-based products so far.

This situation is quite unfortunate, seeing how both Fermi and RV870 are highly anticipated products. This continued shortage is either due to TSMC failing to resolve the "chamber matching issues" reported in October, or because of the emergence of yet another problem with the manufacturing process. Hopefully, the 40nm process will finally mature by Q2 2010, although, after months of continued problems, one can never be too sure.