GlobalFoundries ceases all development on 7nm process; AMD to exclusively use TSMC for 7nm

Today GlobalFoundries, one of the world's most important silicon foundries, announced that it would no longer be working towards its 7nm process which was rumored to be used by AMD for some of its 7nm products. AMD will now be using TSMC exclusively for all products based on the 7nm process.

Matthew Connatser, Published 08/28/2018

Earlier today GlobalFoundries announced a major shift in its plans and said it would not longer be pursuing the 7nm, and would instead be focusing on enhancing its already existing 14 and 12nm nodes. This sudden cancellation will affect GlobalFoundries' clients AMD and IBM, and existing contracts will have to be renegotiated (such as the infamous Wafer Share Agreement with AMD) to account for the cancellation of a process many expected to be of vital interest to the fabbing company.

Gary Patton, CTO of GlobalFoundries, in an interview with Anandtech said the cancellation of the new process was not due to "technical issues." Although GlobalFoundries was set to start producing 7nm chips later this year, the company made a radical change to its strategy and just a few weeks ago opted to instead focus on its already existing processes and refine them. GlobalFoundries does not see the point in developing "bleeding edge" processes that might not be used quickly enough. As it becomes more and more expensive to develop new processes and make chips under newer processes, several foundries have fallen behind or dropped out of the market entirely, especially within the past few years.

Although GlobalFoundries' sales have increased since 2012 by 50%, the company still makes losses on its products. Furthermore, GlobalFoundries did not plan 7nm for high volume, so that seems to have also factored into the decision on cancelling 7nm. As a cost saving measure, GlobalFoundries has chosen to focus on 14 and 12nm, which are somewhat competitive today, and adapt them for all segments of the market: high end performance, compact size, and low power usage. GlobalFoundries' 14nm node was previously used for several AMD architectures, including Polaris, Vega, and Zen, while 12nm was first used for Zen+.

AMD will now be using TSMC's 7nm node for its future 7nm CPUs and GPUs. Now that GlobalFoundries cannot provide AMD silicon of this quality, the company has no choice but to choose TSMC. AMD already announced that Rome and Vega would be fabbed at TSCM, but it is now clear that AMD will be fabbing everything they have for 7nm at TSMC. Any products that AMD planned to fab at GlobalFoundries will now be fabbed at TSMC.

Source(s)

Anandtech

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Press Release

GlobalFoundries Reshapes Technology Portfolio to Intensify Focus on Growing Demand for Differentiated Offerings

Semiconductor manufacturer realigns leading-edge roadmap to meet client need and establishes wholly-owned subsidiary to design custom ASICs.

Santa Clara, Calif., August 27, 2018 – GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced an important step in its transformation, continuing the trajectory launched with the appointment of Tom Caulfield as CEO earlier this year. In line with the strategic direction Caulfield has articulated, GF is reshaping its technology portfolio to intensify its focus on delivering truly differentiated offerings for clients in high-growth markets.

GF is realigning its leading-edge FinFET roadmap to serve the next wave of clients that will adopt the technology in the coming years. The company will shift development resources to make its 14/12nm FinFET platform more relevant to these clients, delivering a range of innovative IP and features including RF, embedded memory, low power and more. To support this transition, GF is putting its 7nm FinFET program on hold indefinitely and restructuring its research and development teams to support its enhanced portfolio initiatives. This will require a workforce reduction, however a significant number of top technologists will be redeployed on 14/12nm FinFET derivatives and other differentiated offerings.

“Demand for semiconductors has never been higher, and clients are asking us to play an ever-increasing role in enabling tomorrow’s technology innovations,” Caulfield said. “The vast majority of today’s fabless customers are looking to get more value out of each technology generation to leverage the substantial investments required to design into each technology node. Essentially, these nodes are transitioning to design platforms serving multiple waves of applications, giving each node greater longevity. This industry dynamic has resulted in fewer fabless clients designing into the outer limits of Moore’s Law. We are shifting our resources and focus by doubling down on our investments in differentiated technologies across our entire portfolio that are most relevant to our clients in growing market segments.”

In addition, to better leverage GF’s strong heritage and significant investments in ASIC design and IP, the company is establishing its ASIC business as a wholly-owned subsidiary, independent from the foundry business. A relevant ASIC business requires continued access to leading-edge technology. This independent ASIC entity will provide clients with access to alternative foundry options at 7nm and beyond, while allowing the ASIC business to engage with a broader set of clients, especially the growing number of systems companies that need ASIC capabilities and more manufacturing scale than GF can provide alone.

GF is intensifying investment in areas where it has clear differentiation and adds true value for clients, with an emphasis on delivering feature-rich offerings across its portfolio. This includes continued focus on its FDXTM platform, leading RF offerings (including RF SOI and high-performance SiGe), analog/mixed signal, and other technologies designed for a growing number of applications that require low power, real-time connectivity, and on-board intelligence. GF is uniquely positioned to serve this burgeoning market for “connected intelligence,” with strong demand in new areas such as autonomous driving, IoT and the global transition to 5G.