WHILE SOURCES close to Nvidia claim that the firm has a special relationship with major foundry TSMC which lets it pay for good dies rather than the whole silicon wafer, other customers say they think it's unlikely that such a deal exists.
TSMC has a number of other customers which give it designs to fabricate, and the nature of those deals means that customers pay for a whole silicon wafer, rather than just good dies which come from the fabrication process.
This means that if there is a problem with yields resulting in few viable chips coming from a wafer, it's the TSMC customer that bears the brunt of the cost, rather than the foundry itself.
That keeps TSMC's costs rock bottom, in a business which is tough and capital intensive.
Because we believed that this was the model TSMC applied to all customers of its foundry business, we took the time to talk to sources at both Via and ATI, which also use this company to make chips for them.
Each source said independently that it was highly unlikely that Nvidia had any kind of special deal with TSMC, although we expect next time they meet up with Morris Chang, TSMC's chairman, they might ask whether this "special deal" exists.
One source said: "I think this special relationship is more marketing fluff spouted by Nvidia than any real substance. You don't hear Morris Changg using the term very often, if at all".
Of course, this is a highly sensitive business, one reason being cost and the other being intellectual property. When we last talked to TSMC, some three or four years ago, we asked how it managed to deal with different customers which competed fiercely with each other. TSMC does its best to isolate each firm from the other, and to ensure that staff don't know too much about too many different IP designs.
Ask TSMC whether Broadcom, ATI or any other chip maker has a "special relationship" with it, and no doubt the answer would be in the affirmative.
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Source:
TheInquirer
