AMD taped out its first couple of FinFET designs

Posted on Friday, July 17 2015 @ 14:29 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
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Yesterday Intel officially confirmed its 10nm process is delayed so naturally analysts were curious about the implications for AMD. Matthew D. Ramsay from Canaccord Genuity asked Lisa Su as to how the Moore's Law progression is going with Zen coming in on 14nm in 2016 and what Intel's delay means for AMD.

Su responded the process technology landscape right now looks quite interesting, she added that they just taped out their first couple of FinFET designs and mentioned she thinks Zen is going to be very competitive from an architectural standpoint.
Matthew D. Ramsay - Canaccord Genuity, Inc.
Thank you very much for taking my questions. A little bit of a, I guess, longer-term strategic question for you, Lisa. Last night Intel announced the addition of a new chip on their 14-nanometer roadmap and pushed back 10-nanometer. It strikes two things; one, love to get your commentary relative to your foundry partners as to how the Moore's Law progression is going particularly with Zen coming on 14-nanometer next year, and second, it looks like now you will be in a position to potentially overlap your Zen products with a generation of Intel products that is still on 14-nanometer. Just your reaction to that in general and the competitive landscape on the foundry side. Thanks.

Lisa T. Su - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director
Yes, Matt, so I do think the process technology landscape right now is quite interesting. So on your – the first part of your question, how do we view FinFET technologies? Actually, I think the maturity of FinFET technologies is coming along very nicely, and so we see it as an important part of our roadmap in 2016, across all of our markets. We have actually just taped out our first couple of FinFET designs. Relative to what that means for the competitive landscape going forward, I have been asked that question a couple of times over the last – last year, and my comments have been our focus is on design architecture, and it includes – and ensuring that we use all of our design architecture expertise.

So, Zen is a clean sheet design, and from an architectural standpoint I think it's going to be very competitive. The fact that the gap between foundry technologies and other technologies is shrinking, I think does change the competitive landscape and will be a good opportunity as we go forward competitively. So we are aggressively going after FinFET, and I think that's going to be an incredibly important node for us.
Transcript courtesy of Seeking Alpha


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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