TSMC Suffers 28 nm Woes

Subject: Editorial | March 9, 2012 - 11:45 AM | Josh Walrath
Tagged: TSMC, tahiti, process node, nvidia, kepler, amd, 28 nm

 Charlie over at Semiaccurate is reporting that TSMC has closed down their entire 28 nm line.  Shut down.  Not running wafers.  This obviously cannot be good.

Apparently TSMC stopped the entire line about three weeks ago and have not restarted it.  This type of thing does not happen very often, and when it does, things are really out of whack.  Going back we have heard mixed reviews of TSMC’s 28 nm process.  NVIDIA was quoted as saying that yields still were not very good, but at least were better than what they experienced with their first 40 nm part (GTX 400 series).  Now, part of NVIDIA’s problem was that the design was as much of an issue as the 40 nm process was.  AMD at the time was churning out HD 5000 series parts at a pretty good rate, and they said their yields were within expectations.

AMD so far is one of the first customers out of the gate with a large volume of 28 nm parts.  The HD 7900 series has been out since the second week of January, the HD 7700 series since mid-February, and the recently released HD 7800 series will reach market in about 2 weeks.  Charlie has done some more digging and has found out that AMD has enough product in terms of finished boards and packaged chips that they will be able to handle the shutdown from TSMC.  Things will get tight at the end, but apparently the wafers in the middle of being processed have not been thrown out or destroyed.  So once production starts again, AMD and the other customers will not have to wait 16 to 20 weeks before getting finished product.

NVIDIA will likely not fare nearly as well.  The bulk of the stoppage occurred during the real “meat and potatoes” manufacturing cycle for the company.  NVIDIA expects to launch the first round of Kepler based products this month, but if production has been stopped for the past three weeks then we can bet that there are a lot of NVIDIA wafers just sitting in the middle of production.  Charlie also claims that the NVIDIA launch will not be a hard one, and NVIDIA expects retail products to be available several weeks after the introduction.

The potential reasons for this could be legion.  Was there some kind of toxic spill that resulted in a massive cleanup that required the entire line to be shut down?  Was there some kind of contamination that was present while installing the line, but was not discovered until well after production started?  Or was something glossed over during installation that ballooned into a bigger problem that just needed to be rectified (a stitch in time saves nine)?

Podcast #192 - AMD Radeon HD 7870 and 7850, Z77 Motherboard previews, and a Steam console

Subject: Editorial, General Tech | March 8, 2012 - 04:00 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: Z77, ssd, podcsat, podcast, msi, Intel, gpu, cpu, asus, amd, 7870, 7850

PC Perspective Podcast #192 - 03/08/2012

Join us this week as we talk about the AMD Radeon HD 7870 and 7850, Z77 Motherboard previews, and a Steam console?

You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.

The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!

• iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through the iTunes Store
• RSS - Subscribe through your regular RSS reader
• MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file

Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Jeremy Hellstrom, Josh Walrath, and Allyn Malvantano

This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!

Program length: 54:59

Program Schedule: 

1. 0:00:42 Introduction
2. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
3. http://pcper.com/podcast
4. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
5. 0:02:00 Installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview In A VirtualBox Virtual Machine
6. 0:05:00 AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB and HD 7850 2GB Pitcairn Review
   1. Radeon HD 7870 2GB vs HD 7850 2GB vs HD 5870 1GB Quick Look
7. 0:18:30 ASUS Z77 Chipset Motherboard Preview: Formula, Gene, mini-ITX
8. 0:24:30 MSI X79A-GD65 (8D) LGA 2011 ATX Motherboard Review
9. 0:26:00 Visual Computing Still Decades from Computational Apex
10. 0:36:00 This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!
    
11. 0:37:00 GDC 12: The bigger big picture, Steam Box to be announced?
12. 0:40:30 MSI Shows of Next Generation Twin Frozr IV Cards at Cebit
13. 0:42:30 Peter Pan presents a stylish mouse at CeBIT; Thermaltake's Level 10 M
14. 0:45:45 Apple Launching Quad Core Graphics A5X Powered iPad 3 With Retina Display
15. 0:49:00 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
    1. Ryan: How about a new laptop?  Time for shopping!!  Ultrabook?  IVB maybe?
    2. Jeremy: Ever heard of the brown note?
    3. Josh: They have arrived
    4. Allyn: sleep lulz
16. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
17. http://pcper.com/podcast   
18. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
19. Closing

Radeon HD 7870 2GB vs HD 7850 2GB vs HD 5870 1GB Quick Look

Subject: Graphics Cards | March 6, 2012 - 05:42 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: radeon, pitcairn, hd 7870, hd 7850, amd, 7870, 7850

After the launch of our Radeon HD 7870 and HD 7850 review this week, I got a couple of emails asking for another data point around the Radeon HD 5800 cards that many users might be looking to upgrade from.  Well, since everyone asked so nicely and I felt bad for not including it in the first place, I decided to quickly throw a HD 5870 1GB card on the test bed and run some 3DMark11 action.

Using the same hardware test bed as the other graphics cards, we ran the HD 5870 1GB using the 12.2 pre-certified driver, the same we used on the rest of our non-7000 series Radeon cards.  Here are the results.

How does this compare to the new Pitcairn GPUs?

• 3DMark11 Performance Preset
• HD 5870 1GB: 4832
• HD 7870 2GB: 6601 (+36%)
• HD 7850 2GB: 5497 (+13%)
   
• 3DMark11 Extreme Preset
• HD 5870 1GB: 1649
• HD 7870 2GB: 2058 (+25%)
• HD 7850 2GB: 1645 (+0%)

It looks like with just this simple glance, the HD 7870 2GB card would be the only upgrade worth really stretching towards based on performance alone.  There are definitely going to be cases where the 2GB frame buffer will help over the 1GB included in most HD 5870/5850 cards including Eyefinity and titles like Battlefield 3, so even if you go with the HD 7850 card you should see some gains. 

Pitcairn is finally here, low on power and high on performance per dollar

Subject: Graphics Cards | March 5, 2012 - 12:40 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: southern islands, radeon, pitcairn, hd 7870, hd 7850, amd, 7870, 7850

To give the end of the story away at the beginning, sometime around March 19^th you should be able to find an HD 7870 for about $350 and an HD 7850 for around $250.   The HD 7870 not only costs less than the 6970 it consumes less power and can outperform it, making the HD 7870 the more attractive of the two cards.  [H]ard|OCP was less impressed with the HD7850 as it costs about $40 more than a GTX 560 Ti but only performs a small amount better.  It does consume a lot less power than the NVIDIA card though, which can be a big deal for some users and hints at possible overclocking potential. 

Ryan had a slightly better experience with the HD 7850, which might attract those who cannot justify spending over $300 on a graphics card but still want multi-monitor functionality.

"AMD is introducing the performance mainstream Radeon HD 7870 and Radeon HD 7850 today. We'll look at performance compared to the competition and talk about pricing and explore value. If you are in the market for a video card between $249 and $349 these video cards will likely need to be on your short list."

Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:

Graphics Cards

• AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition & Radeon HD 7850 @ AnandTech
• AMD's Radeon HD 7870 GHz @ The Tech Report
• AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition & 7850 Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
• AMD Radeon HD 7870 & 7850 Launch Review @ Neoseeker
• AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB @ Tweaktown
• AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB @ Tweaktown
• AMD Radeon HD 7850 Video Card Review Review @ Hardware Secrets
• AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition Video Card Review @ Hardware Secrets
• AMD Radeon HD 7870 & Radeon HD 7850 @ Techspot
• AMD Radeon HD 7870 and Radeon HD 7850 Graphics Cards Launch Review @ HardwareHeaven
• AMD Radeon HD 7870 and Radeon HD 7850 @ Legion Hardware
• AMD HD7870 and HD7850 @ Kitguru
• AMD Radeon HD 7870 & HD 7850 Review @ Hardware Canucks
• AMD Radeon HD 7850 and 7870 @ Guru of 3D
• AMD Radeon HD 7850 & HD 7870 2 GB @ techPowerUp

Another win for AMD and their non-standard product marketing

Subject: General Tech | March 2, 2012 - 01:01 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: amd, playstation 4

AMD, NVIDIA and Intel have all been going after business that you might never have associated with them in the past.   Cellphones, high powered computing and system on a chip are all areas in which they are developing products and doing so successfully.  AMD has a double win to announce this morning as they are not only going to be providing the silicon for the graphics on the PS4 but will also be providing the GPU.  SemiAccurate goes into the details of what this chip ... or chips ... might be like as Sony has a history of designing very unique systems but have definitely soured on the Cell architecture.

"Yes, you heard that right, multiple sources have been telling SemiAccurate for some time that AMD won not just the GPU as many are suggesting, but the CPU as well. Sony will almost assuredly use an x86 CPU for the PS4, and after Cell in the PS3, can you really blame them? While this may point to a very Fusion/Llano-like architecture we hear that is only the beginning."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Stolen NASA laptop had Space Station control codes @ The Register
• Windows 8 - Installation, Basic Overview and Radeon 7750 / AMD FX-6100 CPU Performance @ HardwareHeaven
• Netgear WNDR3800 Premium Edition Router @ X-bit Labs
• A Quick Look at Windows 8 Consumer Preview @ Techgage

SeaMicro spurns Atom and cleaves to AMD

Subject: General Tech | March 1, 2012 - 02:09 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: amd, seamicro, interconnect, purchase, HPC

There is more movement in the low power server market as AMD purchased SeaMicro for $334 million, an investment that may help them keep their share of the server market.  You might have thought that a company that arrived on the scene with a server based on 512 single core Atoms would either stick with Intel or even consider ARM but instead it was AMD which grabbed them.   It is an important move for AMD to retain competitiveness against Intel considering Intel's purchase of QLogic and its InfiniBand interconnect technology which could lead to entirely new server architecture.  Using SeaMicro's experience of connecting a large amount of individually weak processors into a powerful server AMD will be able to develop the SoC business that they have been pursuing for quite a while now.   Check out the full story at The Inquirer.

"AMD's new CEO Rory Read was fired up about executing better in the server racket at the company's analyst day earlier this month and has wasted little time in stirring things up with the acquisition of low-power server start-up SeaMicro for $334m."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Neat nanoparticles could bring 10TB disks @ The Register
• Adata launches 1.35V DDR3 modules for overclockers @ The Inquirer
• Microsoft shows off their transparent 3D desktop prototype @ Hack a Day
• Intel isn’t ready to announce Centerton, yet @ SemiAccurate
• Mozilla Collusion lets you see who is tracking you @ The Inquirer
• Hands On With Windows 8 Consumer Preview @ TechReviewSource
• Configuring a Windows 8 Virtual Machine @ Techspot
• Wicked Lasers Spyder III Krypton 1 Watt Green Laser @ Tweaktown
• Canon Pixma MG3120 Review @ TechReviewSource
• TechwareLabs Powerbag Give Away Contest