Posted on Thursday, April 29 2010 @ 13:31 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
TSMC announced it will build a third 300mm wafer fab in the Central Taiwan Science Park to keep up with growing chip demand. Chairman and CEO Morris Chang revealed supply of sub-130nm process technology is already 30-40 percent short of demand, which has led to shortages of GPUs and other components. The new fab will cost about US$3.1 billion, construction is set to start within a couple of months, and the fab should start churning out chips using a 28nm process.
Morris Chang, chairman and chief executive of the world`s No.1 pure foundry supplier, recently pointed out that the company`s supply of advanced process technologies, namely 0.13-micron process and below, is already 30-40% short of demand. The shortage, he added, would be furthered as many integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) have begun increasing outsource to pure manufacturers.
Chang estimated the planned factory, designed to process chips using 28-nanometer process, would cost the company around NT$100 billion (US$3.1 billion at US$1:NT$32) in investment, taking up a huge portion of the company`s planned US$4.8 billion in annual investment expenditure for 2010. Construction is set to start in the middle of this year.
More info
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