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Both. AMD made a good decision to divest from Global Foundries. They have also made some great strides in chip design which improve instructions per clock (IPC)
by neogodless 7y ago
Both. AMD made a good decision to divest from Global Foundries. They have also made some great strides in chip design which improve instructions per clock (IPC) as well as increasing cache size and improving the various interconnects. The switch from a monolithic die design to chiplets which puts I/O at the center is an important change as well. But then TMSC enabling AMD to make a successful switch to 7nm adds to the efficiency equation and is likely key for clock speed targets.
- sanxiyn 7y agoAs I understand, AMD pretty much couldn't divest from GlobalFoundries due to a contract, WSA(Wafer Supply Agreement), which is not public. In 2019 AMD announced that WSA got amended to allow AMD to use TSMC.
- fireattack 7y agoWhat did they use before?
- MrRadar 7y agoOriginally AMD owned their own fabrication plants. In the late 2000s they were forced to spin them off (as GlobalFoundaries) for a quick injection of cash after their merger with ATI went badly. Part of that spin-off was the Wafer Supply Agreement (WSA) contract which obligated AMD to buy a certain amount of silicon from GlobalFoundaries, effectively requiring them to manufacture the majority of their products with GF or pay GF for the privilege of manufacturing their products elsewhere. If GF had kept up with the competition that wouldn't necessarily be a problem but for the past 10 years GF has struggled to deliver new nodes on time making the WSA a millstone around AMD's neck. With 14nm GlobalFoundaries ended up licensing Samsung's 14nm process and with 7nm they gave up altogether. While the details are confidential the latest amendment to the WSA presumably gives AMD much more freedom to manufacture their newest products elsewhere as GF literally can't.