Yet, "our customers said they had no interest in 7nm"... There is a reason TSMC invested in 7nm development. Their financial experts clearly see something different than GFs.
Anyone else believe 7nm won't be relevant and it was a good idea to can the project that was 75-90% complete?
SO what I heard, and this is a completely unverified and unsubstantiated rumor, is that they KNEW at the top that 7LP was a no go without a new fab. According to the rumor mill, the plan ALL ALONG was to sell the company and the thinking was that if we have a 7LP development, then it makes the company look much better on paper for future revenue and roadmaps and thus fetch a higher price. No fish were biting, so they cut the proverbial "bait" rather than keep chucking chum into the waters hoping some fat whale came along. All this is exposed and GF's value, reputation (what little it had),etc are all degraded as it looks like the company will ride 14LPP into the sunset (on your colour TV screen). Stay tuned...
GF was in fact on track to develop 7nm, but they forgot to plan for budgeting to get this part type into production which would have required a new fab. The question is did they really "forget", which would imply gross incompetence by SLT, or was this by design making this venture into a scam. Likely a combination of both.
It's a funny thing about the "nonstarter". So what's the "finisher"? AMD is paying top dollar for 14nm wafers now. Once they start mass production on 7 at the "T", doesn't that start dropping the price of the 14nm wafers? Given that the fab is allegedly "full" of 14nm production and according to McK still too costly, what's the end game for Malta? ASPs will be dropping significantly from AMD and then QTI. If you pull out the "differentiation" card as the saving grace, that means-more customers, more specialization, more process flows/derivatives (all with lower volumes) which means you need MORE people. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple of years, for the sake of my old colleagues, I hope it survives.
7nm was a nonstarter without another fab. as the only source for 14/12nm customer (AMD) could not cede current production for future output - this is obvious.
“75-90% complete”? …You’re clueless from a business standpoint” – not fair, you’re barking under the wrong tree. Read this:
“Gary Patton, CTO of GF, said in an interview with EETimes (5/31/2018) that the company’s first-generation 7LP process technology… is on-track for high-volume manufacturing in the second half of 2018. One of the first customers to use this tech will be AMD”.
He publicly bragged that 7LP is 90% complete, but AMD voted with their feet 'cause they knew the real status. Business standpoingt my a.. , lol, lmao.
“75-90% complete”? Quit trolling. Just leave lol. You’re clueless from a business standpoint, if you want to be a mad scientist go help intel figure 7/10 out, but google their struggles as well.