Very curious to see how "state-of-the-art" the new state-of-the-art fab module is going to be, considering right now GF is still only manufacturing 12-nm and up nodes. 7-nm perhaps? Maybe even 5-nm?
This is a bit misleading because GF has proven willing to pay to license other fabs' implementations. Could be a Samsung 8nm knockoff if Samsung is willing to license it (which it likely is)
I suspect it won't be enough to get the 7nm EUV process off the ground.
"It would have cost GF $2-4 billion to ramp up the 40-50,000 wafers/month capacity needed to have a chance of making a return on the node. “The financial investment didn’t make as much sense as doing something else,” said Tom Caulfield, the former general manager of Fab 8 named chief executive of GF in March."
It doesn’t have to totally cover the cost, just lower the cost to GF enough to make the investment worthwhile. It would seem that it must have been close to worthwhile if GF had already bought the EUV machines before. Maybe this support will push them over the edge, especially if they can license from Samsung (who, in turn, has previously licensed from IBM.)
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NextGen_Gamer - Tuesday, February 20, 2024 - link
Very curious to see how "state-of-the-art" the new state-of-the-art fab module is going to be, considering right now GF is still only manufacturing 12-nm and up nodes. 7-nm perhaps? Maybe even 5-nm?meacupla - Tuesday, February 20, 2024 - link
I am very sure it will be 12nmLP+ or 12nm class.They abandoned 7nm and haven't even started on 5nm. There is 0% chance the new fab would use those.
12nm is still useful when the resulting chip design would be too small on smaller nodes.
lmcd - Tuesday, February 20, 2024 - link
This is a bit misleading because GF has proven willing to pay to license other fabs' implementations. Could be a Samsung 8nm knockoff if Samsung is willing to license it (which it likely is)Dante Verizon - Tuesday, February 20, 2024 - link
I suspect it won't be enough to get the 7nm EUV process off the ground."It would have cost GF $2-4 billion to ramp up the 40-50,000 wafers/month capacity needed to have a chance of making a return on the node. “The financial investment didn’t make as much sense as doing something else,” said Tom Caulfield, the former general manager of Fab 8 named chief executive of GF in March."
Blastdoor - Wednesday, February 21, 2024 - link
It doesn’t have to totally cover the cost, just lower the cost to GF enough to make the investment worthwhile. It would seem that it must have been close to worthwhile if GF had already bought the EUV machines before. Maybe this support will push them over the edge, especially if they can license from Samsung (who, in turn, has previously licensed from IBM.)