ATI Delays 80u Production
Apparently, yields on the new 80u process at TSMC still need major improvement as DigiTimes reports that ATI has reportedly chosen to cancel all plans to use this process this year. Both RV560 and R570 will now be produced on the more mature 90u process this year, though no plans are known for the entry level RV505 and RV535 which were also slated to be made at 80u. Time will tell what sort of impact the lack of the 80u process will have upon the overall design, power consumption, and frequencies these GPU's will have.
With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) not being able to improve yield rates on its 80nm manufacturing process, ATI Technologies will forego manufacturing its graphics chips on 80nm node this year, according to industry sources.
TSMC declined to comment on the report, citing customer confidentially, while ATI stated that its migration schedule to 80nm for 2006 has not changed, and it still plans to begin manufacturing on 65nm process technology in 2007.
