NVIDIA To Fab Chips at UMC
Traditionally a key Fab strictly for ATI's GPU production, Digitimes reports that UMC supposedly has landed an order from NVIDIA to produce 90u GPU's. Although few details regarding the deal are known, this is surely a move on NVIDIA's part to assist in keeping costs down and ensure that there is always enough volume of chipsets in the channel. With TSMC, IBM, and now UMC producing NVIDIA's GPU's it seems as though the company is very well protected against any major shortage or yield issues thanks to the redundancy of their efforts. Hopefully, this means we'll be seeing more volume of parts in stores after they launch.
Sources at motherboard makers indicated that United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) will start sampling 90nm-made Nvidia G7 graphics chips in May to makers for validation with volume production to commence in the second half of 2006 at the earliest, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report.
