Posted on Tuesday, December 15 2009 @ 0:12 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Bright Side of News
reports ATI will not release a next-gen GPU architecture in 2010. It appears 2010 will be to ATI as 2009 was to NVIDIA, not much new will be introduced as the company is focusing on making the switch to GlobalFoundries' 32nm process. The Northern Islands GPU will likely be the first ATI chip to be made by GlobalFoundries.
Since the interview was made prior to AMD Financial Analyst Day 2009 and the sub-sequent announcement of the $1.25 billion settlement between AMD and Intel, the interview lacked comments in reaction to the events that unfold. However, when asked about future strategy, it was quite clear that AMD and GlobalFoundries will open a foundry in Abu Dhabi during the next decade and that the company will increase the percentage of production to GlobalFoundries. The move is quite logical, given the excess capacity owned by GlobalFoundries: in 2011, GlobalFoundries will have Fab 1 Module 1 and 2 at their disposal and with the finalization of Chartered Semiconductor acquisition, additional 300mm2 wafer manufacturing facilities in Singapore. Given that Chartered already manufactures CPUs for Xbox 360 and it is rumored that the foundry won a contract for Xbox "3", it is clear in which direction the AMD is heading.
