Globalfoundries said that it would tape out the first chips using 28nm production technology as early as late this year and would initiate risk production early in 2011. It is highly likely that among the very first customers to use Globalfoundries' 28nm process technology will be ATI, graphics business unit of Advanced Micro Devices.

"For the 28nm process - aimed at both high performance and lower power devices - we will tape out products by the end of the year and start production in early 2011. The timing of when you will see products is customer-dependent but it is possible you could see them in [the first half of 2011]," an official for Globalfoundries said in an interview with The Register web-site.

Globalfoundries’ 28nm fabrication process will be available in two variants:

• The 28nm-HP (High Performance) variant will be optimized for leading-edge applications in such areas as graphics, game consoles, storage, networking and media encoding.
• The 28nm-SLP (Super Low Power) variant is optimized for wireless mobile applications such as baseband, application processors, and other handheld functions that require long battery lifetime.

It is known that the 28nm-SLP process will be used to manufacture certain ARM-based system-on-chip (SoCs) devices. Meanwhile, the most likely candidate for 28-HP technology is ATI graphics chips designer, which is known to have selected Globalfoundries' 28nm process to make certain of its next-generation chips.

Unfortunately, it is unknown which graphics processors will be made in Dresden, Germany, but manufacturing of rather complex graphics chips using thin 28nm-HP process will be a benefit for ATI, provided that it is indeed among the first clients for the node. What is unlikely is that AMD starts to use a brand-new HKMG fabrication technology for a wide range of products and especially very complex GPUs for high-end market.

Tags: ATI, AMD, Globafoundries, 28nm, Semiconductor, Radeon