GlobalFoundries Stops All 7nm Development: Opts To Focus on Specialized Processes
by Anton Shilov & Ian Cutress on August 27, 2018 4:01 PM EST- Posted in
- Semiconductors
- CPUs
- AMD
- GlobalFoundries
- 7nm
- 7LP
GlobalFoundries 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.
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V900 - Monday, August 27, 2018 - link
This is what the end of Moore’s Law and exponential growth in computing looks like.Foundries dropping out, not because they don’t see a way forward, or can’t figure out how to get to the next node, but because it’s too expensive to move on.
FunBunny2 - Tuesday, August 28, 2018 - link
"it’s too expensive to move on."that's only half the story. the other half is product demand. everybody from user device producers to the materials miners can only thrive if there's sufficient unmet demand to require expanding output. for chip makers, whatever happened to the >300mm wafer?? never happened. same will happen with smaller nodes: while they *could* make more chips with smaller nodes, even on 300, unless there's demand for more chips, it won't happen.
that gets us into macroeconomics, which is to say the disappearing middle class. the 1% isn't (and never has) growing fast enough to absorb higher cost output. not enough output to drive down average cost. the bean counters care only about that. the current bowing to Social Darwinism from certain places keeps a lid on demand.
Koenig168 - Monday, August 27, 2018 - link
The books will look better in the short term but once 7nm becomes mainstream, it's not hard to imagine what will happen to Global Foundries. 90nm was the first sub-micron fabrication technology. Imagine what would have happened if a company says "we are already sub-micron, let's stop investing in 65nm and focus on specialized manufacturing". Who still uses 90nm now?grant3 - Monday, August 27, 2018 - link
If GloFo had shut their doors after 90nm, they'd have saved a few billion dollars....V900 - Monday, August 27, 2018 - link
Or they could have stayed open but not move beyond 90nm. Sooner or later they would have recouped the investment and become profitable.There is still a huge market out there for older foundries that make ICs bigger than 60nm. And there always will be.
Out of the hundreds (or thousands) of ICs we all come in contact with every day, it’s only a handful that really benefit from being manufactured as small as possible.
For the vast majority, 90nm or 22nm doesn’t matter, except in terms of cost, and the old 90nm fabs can make them a lot cheaper than any newer node.
ChrisGar15 - Wednesday, August 29, 2018 - link
Actually some of GF's most profitable fabs are 90nm and above. (it won't last forever ... but has worked really well the last 10 years)V900 - Monday, August 27, 2018 - link
Ehm... A lot... More than you’d think anyways.Out of the entire worldwide IC market, only 40% is 40nm and smaller.
The other 60% of the market are all older, bigger nodes. Old 90nm or 130nm tool that have recouped the huge investment in them years ago, and are virtual money printing machines now.
To answer your question, 90nm made up 6% of sales from pure play foundries last year. And that’ll probably only grow in the coming years, since 130nm sales made up 7%. 14% of sales were of IC that were bigger than 130nm but smaller than 180nm.
KAlmquist - Tuesday, August 28, 2018 - link
I learned something new today. Thank you.BurntMyBacon - Tuesday, August 28, 2018 - link
The situation seems less daunting for GF when you put it in perspective. (O_o)#GIVEMEBACKMYDOOMANDGLOOM
V900 - Monday, August 27, 2018 - link
Sorry, forgot the link to the figures: https://www.statista.com/statistics/553271/worldwi...And don’t forget btw, that it’s probably a smaller risk to stay on 12-14nm (or heck: 14-22nm) than to invest billlions of dollars in a new node that might never become profitable.
GF was facing a huge risk. The tens of billions of dollars that a new 7nm would cost, is also a virtual guarantee that it would never be cost effective against older, cheaper nodes where a huge part of the market is.