X-bit labs

AMD Begins Revenue Shipments of Processors Produced by Chartered.

Category: CPU

by Anton Shilov

[ 07/13/2006 | 01:44 AM ]

Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday said it began revenue shipments of its central processing units (CPUs) produced at Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing in June, 2006. The company indicated that product yields at Chartered are mature and the chips are compliant with AMD’s quality requirements.

“Through successful integration of select advanced process control modules we’ve enabled an on-time start-up with the same standards of quality, efficiency and responsiveness that AMD customers have come to expect from our manufacturing operations,” said Daryl Ostrander, senior vice president, logic technology at AMD.

It is unclear, which processors are produced by Chartered Semiconductor.

In November, 2004, AMD and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing announced they had entered into sourcing and manufacturing technology agreements whereby Chartered will implement under license portions of AMD’s Automated Precision Manufacturing (APM) software suite and become an additional manufacturing source of AMD64 microprocessors. Earlier it was reported based on unofficial claims that Chartered would supply first batch of processors to AMD in June 2006.

Earlier reports suggested that the first loading for AMD is about one thousand 300mm wafers per month, on 90nm technology. Chartered started production back in May, and the first shipment was scheduled for July, which means that the companies managed to make the first transaction ahead of schedule. It was also earlier reported that AMD may increase its orders to Chartered to about three thousand wafers per month.

Currently AMD produces about 30 thousand 200mm wafers per month on its Fab 30 and has also initiated shipments of chips produced at its Fab 36, which current capacity remains unknown. Provided that the yields are identical, 1 thousand of 300mm (12”) wafers outputs the same amount of microprocessors as 2.25 thousand of 200mm wafers, which means that AMD’s production capacity may be boosted by high as 7.5% (real figure will be lower, as Fab 36 capacities were not counted).

But while 7.5% does not sound as a too substantial increase in availability, this will still help AMD to sell more of its chips, which were in tight supply in the past due to high demand. Additionally, as the Fab 36 ramps up and AMD’s orders to Chartered increase, the company will be able to ship significantly higher amount of microprocessors as compared to its abilities today. Recently the company reconfirmed its plans to ship two times more processors in 2008 than it did in 2005.