AMD's purchase of TSMC while AMD didn't exactly have much spare cash lying around spawned quite a bit of discussion about their plans. The agreed upon answer was that this was AMDs 'fab light' strategy in action and that TSMC would take over the production of GPUs and CPUs for AMD. The GPU line did indeed start up quickly, but the Phenom was build in AMD facilities, not TSMC's. According to DigiTimes, TSMC is indeed doing test runs for CPU dies, so we may see more of Hector's fab light plan in action soon.
"In addition to its GPU production, AMD is planning to also outsource CPU production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in the second half of this year, according to industry sources.Although Hector Ruiz, CEO of AMD did not mention any plans to outsource production during the company's recent investors conference, the industry sources revealed that TSMC has already started testing procedures for a SOI manufacturing process in order to land manufacturing orders for AMD's Fusion CPUs.
The increase in outsourcing could allow AMD to sell off some of its manufacturing equipment and help lower the company's operating costs, noted sources at AMD's partners
AMD's current goals are to return to profitability in the first half of 2009 and to grab back a 30% worldwide market share by the second quarter in 2009, noted the sources.
AMD had not responded for comment at the time of publication."
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