Industry Expert Blogs
And Then There Were Three: GLOBALFOUNDRIES Drops 7nm to Focus on Other GeometriesBreakfast Bytes - Paul McLellanSep. 06, 2018 |
GF put out a press release last week with the title GF Reshapes Technology Portfolio to Intensify Focus on Growing Demand for Differentiated Offerings. On the same day, AMD put out a communication Expanding our High-Performance Leadership with Focused 7nm Development.
What this actually means is that GF is abandoning developing its 7nm process (officially putting development on hold indefinitely), and AMD is switching to TSMC 7nm for its future microprocessors. That leaves TSMC and Samsung as the only 7nm foundries, and Intel (and Samsung with another hat on) as the only leading edge IDMs. Of course, there are specialist memory suppliers too, such as Samsung (with yet another hat on), SK Hynix, and Micron. But for logic, there are three 7nm manufacturers (Intel's 10nm is basically what everyone else calls 7nm). But GF was unique in having a dual roadmap, and is now focusing on that other fork.