TSMC Challenges Intel Dominance in Chipmaking

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is challenging 30 years of Intel dominance in chipmaking. Intel estimates that yields for its 10nm process node will be viable by the end of 2019. Top tech companies such as Apple, AMD, NVIDIA and others are flocking to TSMC for their cutting edge 7nm process node. Intel investors are worried that internet companies such as Amazon will choose to design and make their own chips instead of purchasing Intel products. Amazon has already launched its first in-house server processor called Gravitron which uses a TSMC process node to power "an Amazon cloud service that's more than 40 percent cheaper than a similar offering powered by Intel chips, the company said." Amazon is even making their own custom Machine Learning chip designs. Analysts are reluctant to write Intel off as "Intel always seems to find a way."

"TSMC just continues to deliver latest chips on schedule without any mistakes," said Mark Li, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. He thinks Intel's leadership in PC and server chips, plus its pricing power, are at risk because of its smartphone slip and TSMC's hard-earned consistency. "They're a self-fulfilling prophesy now," said Debora Shoquist, executive vice president of operations at Nvidia. "They are the best and the best go to the best."
 
You snooze you lose. Seems like they been at least half snoozing since Conroe quelled the fire AMD lit under their ass with Socket A. ZEN and all these other threats may have done so again. Not really interested in Intel although I hope their GPU is good because NVIDIA needs to be smited next.
 
Intel has a wealth of IP to draw upon, both their own and what they can "borrow" from AMD via their cross-licensing deals. I could totally see them adopting the chiplet design paradigm, possibly doing something like an I/O chip with CPU chiplets and FPGA or AI accelerator chiplets for the datacenter world. If their GPU actually comes out on schedule with respectable performance and power requirements (and good driver support, which may actually be harder to accomplish when going from scratch) they could also integrate this into their designs. It really just depends on how out-of-the-box they feel like going, which is likely going to depend on how threatened they believe their market share is. They certainly haven't been adverse in the past to making fun of an AMD implementation and then adopting it anyway once they see a need for it.
 
Jza said:
You snooze you lose. Seems like they been at least half snoozing since Conroe quelled the fire AMD lit under their ass with Socket A. ZEN and all these other threats may have done so again. Not really interested in Intel although I hope their GPU is good because NVIDIA needs to be smited next.
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Since their priorities shifted back in the Ivy Bridge days they've been focused more on low power / efficiency instead of performance before you even get to the under investment in process tech.
 
Ultima99 said:
Since their priorities shifted back in the Ivy Bridge days they've been focused more on low power / efficiency instead of performance before you even get to the under investment in process tech.
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you sure?

looks like some of their chips are pulling more juice than AMD FX-9590...
 

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There is one good reason not to write them off. The same way you should never write of nvidia. The main reason people want to ditch intel and nvidia is cost, but there is not much in the way of either of those companies simply dropping their prices to compete. That's the reason you take a big risk trying to break into this market. As long as they have the highest end product they can always charge a premium for it and stockpile cash. Then at anytime if someone rises up to beat them they can cut prices and still stay in a great position until the competitor makes a mistake. Or they can even just accept that their business model will simply be a lower profit margin model going forward. In either case they stay a top competitor.
 
rudy said:
There is one good reason not to write them off. The same way you should never write of nvidia. The main reason people want to ditch intel and nvidia is cost, but there is not much in the way of either of those companies simply dropping their prices to compete. That's the reason you take a big risk trying to break into this market. As long as they have the highest end product they can always charge a premium for it and stockpile cash. Then at anytime if someone rises up to beat them they can cut prices and still stay in a great position until the competitor makes a mistake. Or they can even just accept that their business model will simply be a lower profit margin model going forward. In either case they stay a top competitor.
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I'm putting my $$$$ on NVIDIA.
 
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