AMD plans to tape out 7nm products by the end of 2017

AMD plans to tape out 7nm products by the end of 2017

AMD plans to tape out 7nm products by the end of 2017

 
In a recent teleconference with JP Morgan, AMD’s Lisa Su has confirmed that the company plans to be aggressive with modern process technology, revealing plans to tape out 7nm products by the end of 2017.  

When a product tapes out the design process for the integrated circuits, PCB or whatever is being manufactured is finished and a photomask of the circuit/design is created and sent to the fabrication facility.  

 
Typically it takes around a year for between a product initially tapes out and when they are officially released to the public. Products could easily take longer to manufacture if product designs need to be changed when accessed by the foundry (to verify manufacturability) or if the process node that the product is based on is delayed or suffers from low yields. 
 
AMD’s Zen 2 CPU architecture and Navi series of GPUs are based on Globalfoundries’ 7nm manufacturing process, which means that the release date for these next-generation products will likely be constrained by Globalfoundries’ 7nm timetable. If 7nm is delayed or suffers from yield issues at launch, AMD will be hit hard.   
 
 

Harlan Sur – JPMorgan

We talked initially in our discussion about the momentum carrying forward for the team and I think one of the things that you guys did a good job at Analyst Day was helping us to understand what’s next, right? And a good example of that is if we look at Zen 2, which you discussed at Analyst Day, that’s going to be ready sort of 2018, 2019 timeframe. Just maybe discuss in a little bit more granularity about the potential launch dates. These products are proposed to be using 7-nanometer technology from your foundry partners. When do you think such products are going to be sort of ready for tape-out and when do we see these products sort of out in the market?

Lisa Su

Yes, so our goal is to be very competitive in terms of our long-term roadmap. If you look at the foundry 7-nanometer roadmap compared to some of the other technologies out there, it’s actually really competitive. And I think the gap between sort of the foundry roadmap and like the Intel roadmap has gotten a lot closer. Our goal is to be aggressive with 7-nanometer technology. We will be doing tape-outs later this year. And as we get closer to production, we’ll give more insights there. But the idea is to be very competitive throughout the product portfolio.

(Transcript from Seeking Alpha)  AMD plans to tape out 7nm products by the end of 2017AMD plans to tape out 7nm products by the end of 2017

 
The success of Zen 2 and Navi will depend a lot on GlobalFoundries’ performance, both in terms of 7nm’s release timeframe and in terms of the performance characteristics of the node itself. Hopefully, this new process tech will be competitive with Intel’s offerings and will allow AMD to greatly improve the performance and efficiency of their new products. 

 

You can join the discussion on AMD’s 7nm plans on the OC3D Forums. 

Â