AS WE NOTED SOME weeks back, demand exceeds supply for Radeon products and now it appears that its major foundry partner, TSMC, has received an order to produce extra wafers to help its graphics chip business.
The Economic News reported earlier today that ATI will use TSMC 12-inch wafers to produce chips for its products, and the reason is strong demand for its 9700 Pro.
TSMC appears to be the major beneficiary of the move, although ATI does use UMC for some of its products.
The report said that TSMC, which also produces chips for bitter graphics rival Nvidia, will start to print the 9700 Pro parts at .13 micron and on 12 inch wafers.
The major advantage of using 12-inch wafers is that you can print more chips on it, making for economies of scale.
The article also appears to claim that Nvidia's NV30, which we understand "taped out" two weeks back, is already in production at TSMC using .13 micron technology. But if that's true, it's got to be very early silicon.
News source: The Inquirer
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