As AMD ramps up production of its next-generation CPUs and GPUs, it is set to become TSMC’s second-largest client for its N5 (5nm-class) production node platform in the second half of 2022. Digi Times report. But will he be the second largest customer across all foundries, and if so, it is behind Apple but ahead of MediaTek.
AMD is set to launch multiple new products made using various nodes belonging to TSMC’s N5 family. Release the processor. The company is set to begin production of its 4th generation EPYC processors, codenamed Genoa, which will feature the same Zen 4 microarchitecture, later this year. AMD will also release its Radeon RX 7000 series graphics processors with the RDNA 3 architecture later this year. His EPYC, which is data center oriented, will have a much slower launch, while the client oriented Ryzen and Radeon will need to launch relatively quickly, so AMD plans to produce some mass-produced N5 chips by the end of the year. is.
Going into 2023, AMD will later launch EPYC processors codenamed Bergamo with Zen 4C cores for cloud native workloads and EPYC CPUs codenamed Siena for telecom equipment in Q1. . Both will be manufactured using his one of TSMC’s N5 process technology. Additionally, AMD is set to introduce his Zen 4 based Ryzen 7000 codenamed Phoenix processors for mainstream and high performance laptops later next year.
In summary, AMD expects to see a large volume of applications (desktops, notebooks, high-performance servers, cloud servers, telco servers) built on multiple TSMC’s N5 process technologies over the next 6-9 months. I plan to order chips. As a result, he could be TSMC’s second largest N5 customer in early 2023 instead of late 2022.
For readers who follow AMD closely, AMD becoming TSMC’s second-largest customer on the N5 platform means AMD is poised to become the foundry’s second-largest customer in general. You may ask if
What we do know about TSMC’s biggest customer is that AMD was slightly behind MediaTek last December, but AMD’s acquisition of Xilinx has since closed the gap between the two. shrinking. MediaTek tends to mass-sell system-on-chips for consumer electronics, smartphones, and tablets, and is more aggressive than CPU and GPU companies in adopting TSMC’s latest node. This is why the expenditure on production is high. But MediaTek’s SoC has a very long lifespan, so it’s cheap to manufacture.
On the other hand, AMD’s N5-based product family is very broad in terms of applications, so the volume the company needs is also huge. As TSMC will price his N5 chips higher than his N7 offerings, the company’s spending on TSMC will also increase as AMD’s next-generation N5 chips will cost more to manufacture than their existing devices. Will it be enough to leave MediaTek behind? We don’t know for sure, but AMD clearly could.
Being TSMC’s second-largest customer has the advantage of strengthening AMD’s position when it comes to talking about quotas, price negotiations, or customizing process technology. In general allocation is very important for a company like AMD and with so many product lines that benefit from cutting edge nodes now it is very important for AMD to strengthen his relationship with TSMC is. Being our number two customer is a great way to strengthen our relationship with the foundry.
