AMD Said to Contract TSMC, GlobalFoundries to Make 28nm Chips

Taipei, June 20, 2011 (CENS)-- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is reportedly to designate Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) as its primary contract supplier of 28nm Krishna/Wichita microprocessors early next year and GlobalFoundries as another contract source later in 2012, according to local media.

The report said that Krishna/Wichita are the next-generation versions of the low-end AMD Ontario/Zacate family. AMD has contracted TSMC, currently the world's No.1 pure silicon foundry, to build its Ontario/Zacate processors and the Desna processors meant for tablet PCs using 40nm process technology.

Robust demand for Ontario/Zacate and Desna processors in developing economies has promoted AMD to ramp up contracts to TSMC.

Also, AMD Northern Island-family graphics processing units are under volume production at TSMC based on 40nm process. The graphics lineup's next generation, the 28nm Southern Island family, has seen its tapeout completed by TSMC, which is expected to start contract manufacturing of the chips for AMD by the end of this year.

AMD's 32nm Llano processors have entered into volume production at GlobalFoudries. The report also noted that GlobalFoundries will be also a major contract manufacturer of AMD's Trinity processors, which are designed on 32nm SOI rule, in 2012. Trinity is developed for laptops and more efficient than Llano.