Posted 07/08/09 at 04:09:21 PM by Andy Salisbury

Some recent reports have suggested that Nvidia is planning to launch their new 40nm GeForce GT 220 and GeForce G210 GPUs at the end of September.

Until now, Nvidia has had to delay the launch of their 40nm GPUs due to low yield rates from TSMC. But, recently the rate has improved a great deal, allowing Nvidia to schedule a launch before the end of the year and most importantly – in time for the holidays!

Read More

Posted 07/07/09 at 03:10:10 PM by Andy Salisbury

According to some recent rumors that have surfaced over at DigiTimes, Intel will be using some intellectual property from their new foundry partner, TSMC, in order to help fill out its upcoming ultramobile chipset.

The intellectual property, currently codenamed Langwell, will work as the southbridge for Intel’s Atom successor, which is only known by the codename Moorestown. The diagram above displays how an Atom-based CPU core, a GPU core, a memory controller, and two video processing blocks can be worked around the Moorestown platform.

No word yet if this rumor is true, but the evidence looks pretty solid.

Read More

Posted 10/03/08 at 11:27:33 AM by Paul Lilly

In the world of CPUs, die shrinks are usually precursors to a better all around chip, whether that means it runs cooler, overclocks higher, or races faster. Intel, AMD, and IBM are constantly at work trying to hit that next milestone, but what about consumer gadgets?

Shrunken dies are particularly important for portable electronics and handheld gadgets, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's largest contract chip makers, says its on the ball. The company announced plans to start using 28nm technology in its fabrication plants by 2010.

"Product differentiation, faster time-to-market and investment optimization are the three most important values TSMC delivers to our customers," said Jason Chen, TSMC's VP. "In support of these values, we are developing this comprehensive 28nm technology family so that it offers choices, depending on the customer applications and performance requirements."

According to TSMC, its upcoming 28nm chips will run 50 percent faster while consuming anywhere from 30 to 50 percent less power than current generation 40nm parts. The main target for these new chips will be the cellular industry, but both Nvidia and Texas Instruments also have a close relationship with TSMC. If TSMC's claims hold true, that could be good news for Nvidia and the future of its graphics cards.

Read More