4 ms·

These headlines always make it sound like the chips are fungible. Is it that they’re basically saturating the entire production capacity with their orders?

zrail 4y ago
Yes, that is exactly what happened.
Aromasin 4y ago
Depends on your definition of "supply". The argument is mainly just semantics. They're not wrong per-se. A better phrase might have been "production" rather than supply. I agree, supply sounds like I'm buying an off the shelf component, not a custom designed wafer. In short, Apple is set to purchase every wafer that TSMC produces when they launch their N3 node. How long for should have, but hasn't, been specified. It's safe to assume that by "entire supply" they mean "until TSMCs next node", at which point TSMC will take orders from other companies for their N3 node.
- sigmar 4y ago
  >It's safe to assume that by "entire supply" they mean "until TSMCs next node" Is that really safe to assume? Maybe the original paywalled story is more precise with language, but the use of "all available orders" and "100% of the initial N3 supply" seems so vague to me. Could initial mean first month of full scale production?
  - ChoGGi 4y ago
    Looks like all production till somewhere around Q4 2024. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-15th-gen-arrow-lake-tsmc-delay https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-15th-gen-arrow-lake-...
edude03 4y ago
Yeah that's exactly what's happening - TSMC predicts they can make N chips per Y period, and apple has said they'd like 100% of Y period to be dedicated to making chips for Apple.
- conductr 4y ago
  It’s totally possible Apple put in an order for 200% and tsmc said we can only 100%. It’s actually more likely scenario and In this case, apple is not a strategizing villain purposely buying up all the supply. It’s also possible they bought/earned exclusivity on the product. Maybe they funded or helped the R&D, in which case these things wouldn’t exist without apple so it makes sense they should get first access.
- __anon-2023__ 4y ago
  Plus an exclusivity agreement to ensure no sharing is happening.

zrail 4y ago

Yes, that is exactly what happened.

Aromasin 4y ago

Depends on your definition of "supply". The argument is mainly just semantics. They're not wrong per-se. A better phrase might have been "production" rather than supply. I agree, supply sounds like I'm buying an off the shelf component, not a custom designed wafer. In short, Apple is set to purchase every wafer that TSMC produces when they launch their N3 node. How long for should have, but hasn't, been specified. It's safe to assume that by "entire supply" they mean "until TSMCs next node", at which point TSMC will take orders from other companies for their N3 node.

sigmar 4y ago
>It's safe to assume that by "entire supply" they mean "until TSMCs next node" Is that really safe to assume? Maybe the original paywalled story is more precise with language, but the use of "all available orders" and "100% of the initial N3 supply" seems so vague to me. Could initial mean first month of full scale production?
- ChoGGi 4y ago
  Looks like all production till somewhere around Q4 2024. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-15th-gen-arrow-lake-tsmc-delay https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-15th-gen-arrow-lake-...

edude03 4y ago

Yeah that's exactly what's happening - TSMC predicts they can make N chips per Y period, and apple has said they'd like 100% of Y period to be dedicated to making chips for Apple.

conductr 4y ago
It’s totally possible Apple put in an order for 200% and tsmc said we can only 100%. It’s actually more likely scenario and In this case, apple is not a strategizing villain purposely buying up all the supply. It’s also possible they bought/earned exclusivity on the product. Maybe they funded or helped the R&D, in which case these things wouldn’t exist without apple so it makes sense they should get first access.
__anon-2023__ 4y ago
Plus an exclusivity agreement to ensure no sharing is happening.