Nvidia Tips 20nm Contract to TSMC

Taipei, Dec. 5, 2012 (CENS)--Industry executives have regarded an Nvidia executive's statement in a recent interview with a South Korean newspaper as the company's inclination to contract Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) as its 20nm process foundry provider.

In an interview conducted by Hankook Ilbo, a daily newspaper published by the Hankook Ilbo Media Group in Seoul, Phil Eisler, general manager of GeForce GRID Cloud Gaming at Nvidia, pointed out that Nvidia has approved TSMC's 20nm foundry capacity.

Eisler said although his company has evaluated all foundry options, TSMC remains the best choice for his company. He noted that his company has set up long-term cooperation with TSMC, which has persistently provided Nvidia the optimum portfolio of production capacity, technology and pricing.

Samsung Electronics is also reportedly competing for Nvidia's 20nm foundry contracts.

Samsung's share of world silicon foundry market remains low. According to market research organization Gartner, in 2011 TSMC had 48.8% of the market, far leading United Microelectronics Corp.'s 12.1%, GlobalFoundries Inc.'s 12% and Samsung's 1.6%.

Nvidia, a world leading vendor of graphics processing units (GPUs), has recently branched out into processors for non-Apple tablet PCs and smartphones. The chips require advanced processing technologies.

Industry executives felt that Nvidia's contracts will keep TSMC's advanced processing technologies running at high capacity. They are watching whether TSMC will be able to lure Apple contracts away from Samsung in 2013 after winning Nvidia contracts.