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What did they use before?
by fireattack 7y ago
What 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.