NVIDIA Spurs TSMC vs. UMC Price War
DigiTimes reports that NVIDIA is currently enjoying a price war between TSMC and UMC as each foundry fights for the company's 80u business. Although historically an ATI-focused foundry, UMC is now aggressively pricing their 80u capacity in an attempt to secure NVIDIA's orders for that process and steal business away from TSMC. Here, it will be interesting to see how TSMC reacts as that foundry is responsible for roughly 90% of NVIDA's products. However, even if NVIDIA grants the 80u business to UMC, the high-profile 90u business used for all mainstream and flagship level products will certainly remain in the capable hands of TSMC.
"Nvidia expects to start producing its HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) G73-B1 graphics card manufactured on an 80nm process at the end of the third quarter, and coming next will be its low-end G72 graphics processing unit (GPU), the sources said.
While migration to an 80nm process will cut down production costs, Nvidia has no plans to adopt the 80nm process for its high-end G71 GPUs because the shipment volume is not high, and making them at a more mature process delivers better yields, the sources said."
