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  • melgross - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    Aren’t all fabs these days “multibillion”? I’m not impressed by the number, it’s expected.
  • Space Jam - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    Even by fab standards its pricey.
  • JCB994 - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    Cost is not so much the building but in the equipment. When Photo tools go for >$100 million, costs add up quickly.
  • Samus - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    20 billion is about half of global foundaries net worth. That's pretty significant because this is just ONE fab compared to a conglomerate of multiple high tech fabs.
  • name99 - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    There are lots of fabs building lots of things...

    A fab for lowish-end optical components or for some MEMS might run for under $10 million, especially if you are willing to outsource some steps of the manufacturing that are best done by alternative sorts of equipment (eg outsourcing optical coating or the MEMS assembly).
  • Samus - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    GloFo has two of the most advanced fabs in the world (and 10 fabs total) with Fab 1 in Dresden Germany and Fab 8 in Saratoga County New York both being 300mm production...Fab 1 has among the highest production capacity of any single fab in the world and Fab 8 is cutting edge 12nm finfet running at maximum production capacity with class leading yields. GloFo yields have been marginally, but consistently, better than TSMC's during the last 3 process node shrinks. TSMC is also heavily dependent on a single customer, NVidia, for over half of their business. GloFo produces chips for Qualcomm, STMicro, Broadcom, AMD, and IBM.

    GloFo also tapped out 7nm samples for customers this year with production beginning next year at 300mm, stating they could actually do it now but insist on tighter yields and cite they have plenty of time to still beat competitors to market because they jumped 10nm unlike everyone else.

    But most importantly is the fact anybody can place orders at GloFo. They even have teams dedicated to helping you design ASICs. Samsung...doesn't really FAB for other people.
  • Tams80 - Friday, July 7, 2017 - link

    Samsung, at the moment at least, does manage to fulfil depend internally for the most part, with some big customers taking up the rest. With this fab, maybe they will have some to spare. That doesn't take into account them being South Korean though, which might make it harder for smaller companies to get help from them.

    As for GlobalFoundries, while they are doing well now, let's not forget their 14nm FinFET design failed, and they had to license Samsung's design. Luck changes quickly in this industry.
  • vladx - Sunday, July 9, 2017 - link

    And yet most if not all of TSMC-based products trounce the GloFo-based ones.
  • Eric Klien - Wednesday, July 12, 2017 - link

    "TSMC is also heavily dependent on a single customer, NVidia, for over half of their business."

    This isn't even close to being correct so everything else you said is likely wrong as well. Nvidia is about 5% of their business (although getting larger over time). Financial Times said, "In 2016, TSMC’s top two customers were Apple and Qualcomm, which contributed 17 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, to its revenue." at https://www.ft.com/content/80feb372-3177-11e7-9555...
  • lilmoe - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    Lower prices please.
  • Space Jam - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    Prices should lower with this going forward.

    Personally, I imagine the demand for NAND is very elastic and thus prices won't drop considerably.
  • EasyListening - Wednesday, July 12, 2017 - link

    Ditto. Sounds like a facility big enough to handle many jobs running at full tilt. It's like, ok, homework's done. Now to scale this mofo and cash in on some economies of scale.

    "Samsung...doesn't really FAB for other people." Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 is fabbed at Samsung on their 10nm. According to this article, http://www.gsmarena.com/qualcomm_is_going_with_tsm... , Qualcomm was 40% of Samsung's foundry sales.

    Dr. Lisa Su, AMD CEO, did her PhD thesis on a finfet manufacturing technique known as Silicon-on-Insulator, or SOI. Turns out that Samsung studied SOI and went with that approach rather than do what Intel was doing with a different approach called Bulk Silicon. Intel ran into serious problems, causing major delays, to the point that Samsung, which started getting into 14nm finfet a while after Intel started on it, nearly beat Intel to market with their competing process.

    Must have been interesting for Samsung to go over to AMD/GloFo with their latest research on SOI and showing Su what they had come up with. Su is one of the most respected research engineers in the semiconductor industry. Her accomplishments are quite impressive to anyone who likes to nerd out about that sort of stuff.

    Long story short, Samsung outmaneuvers Intel by developing a 14nm process that shrinks relatively easily to 7nm while everyone else, Intel included, putzes around at 10nm. You know what else is shrinking? Intel's margins. Intel's CEO is looking more and more out of his depth these days.
  • Eric Klien - Wednesday, July 12, 2017 - link

    "Samsung...doesn't really FAB for other people." They fab for many companies including Nvidia. They make the 1030, 1050, and 1050 Ti for Nvidia.
  • prateekprakash - Thursday, July 6, 2017 - link

    Larger capacity please... For archival purposes... 8TB 2.5" and 16TB 2.5" would be great...
  • Elsote - Thursday, July 13, 2017 - link

    Could this fab be used to build HMB ram?

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