TSMC anticipates 28nm will be 10 percent of its sales in 2H 2012

TSMC reports the ramp up of its 28nm process will be fast, the company anticipates the new process will contribute to 10 percent of its wafer revenue in the second half of 2012, up from 2 percent in Q4 2011.

"Our 28nm entered volume production last year and contributed 2% of Q4 2011's wafer revenue. Defect density and progress is ahead of schedule and is better than 40/45nm at the corresponding stage of the ramp-up. We expect 28nm amp this year to be fast and we expect 28nm will contribute more than 10% of total wafer revenue this year," said Morris Chang, chief executive officer and chairman of TSMC.

TSMC has so far completed 36 individual tape-outs and have scheduled another 132 individual product tape-outs in this year. At present the company produces chips using 28LP (SiON), 28HP (HKMG) and 28HPL (HKMG) versions of the process. The 28HPM flavour entered risk production this quarter and the manufacturer expects to start volume manufacturing of chips using 28HPM in the second half of 2012. At present the majority of 28nm chips made by TSMC are produced using 28nm LP process technology that relies on silicon oxynitride, but by the end of the year TSMC expects 50% of its 28nm chips to rely on more advanced high-K metal gate (HKMG) technology. In Q1 2012 TSMC expects wafers processed using 28nm process technologies to account for 5% of revenue.

Future Horizons analyst Mike Bryant on the other hand paints a bleak picture over at EE Times, he heard from contacts at multiple companies that TSMC's 28nm process suffers from poor yields:

Bryant said that there are 10 designs in manufacture from seven companies. "We're now hearing none of them work; no yield anyway," he told an audience at a one-day market forecast conference organized by Future Horizons, here on Thursday (Jan. 19). "Ten designs going through; we have heard about problems on six of them," Bryant added. Bryant's comments echo those made by Bob Johnson, research vice president at market research firm Gartner in November 2011.

However, Bryant's description of the situation at TSMC is quite different to that of the company's CEO and chairman Morris Chang. Speaking to analysts about TSMC's fourth quarter financial results on the previous day, Chang said: "Our 28-nm entered volume production last year and contributed 2 percent of 4Q11's wafer revenue. Defect density and new progress is ahead of schedule and is better than 40-45-nm at the corresponding stage of the ramp-up. We expect 28-nm ramp this year to be fast and we expect 28-nm will contribute more than 10 percent of total wafer revenue this year."

TSMC anticipates 28nm will be 10 percent of its sales in 2H 2012 - More news at DV Hardware

Acer predicts 25-35 percent marketshare for ultrabooks

Acer chairman JT Wang told DigiTimes that he anticipates that ultrabooks will account for 25 to 35 percent of total notebook shipments in 2012:

Sales of Acer's first ultrabook, the Aspire S3, totaled about 250,000-300,000 units in the first quarter after launch, and the company expects sales for its new Aspire S5 tablet PC will be even better.

While the sales prospects are still unclear for Europe this year, Acer expects strong sales gained in Brazil, the Philippines, Thailand and other Southeast Asia markets will make up slow sales in the US and Europe, Wang stated.

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HDD supply to fall short 35 percent in Q4 2011

Sources at Taiwanese PC makers told DigiTimes that HDD production is estimated to fall short of demand by about 35 percent:

Global supply of hard disk drives (HDDs) in the fourth quarter of 2011 will decrease to 110-130 million units due to the impact of flooding in Thailand, about 35% short of demand for 180 million units, according to Taiwan-based makers in the PC supply chain.

Some PC makers are relatively optimistic that the global HDD shortage will ease in first-quarter 2012, while others estimate the easing to come in the second quarter, the sources indicated. However, they believe the HDD industry will take 9-24 months to completely restore normal production, meaning PC vendors will have to face increased HDD costs in 2012, the sources said.

HDD supply to fall short 35 percent in Q4 2011 - More news at DV Hardware

ARM to capture 10 percent of PC market by 2013?

Morgan Stanley analysts believe ARM will grab 10 percent of the PC market by 2013. Full details at FUD Zilla.

In a survey of 30 PC manufacturers, Morgan Stanley found that 40 percent of them were willing to give ARM chips a go. However, there are some hurdles to overcome before ARM PCs become a reality. Next generation chips from the likes of Texas Instruments and Nvidia should have enough muscle to power low end PCs, and their low power consumption could make them a perfect choice for affordable ultraportables or nettops.

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Most next generation ARM chips that could find their way into PCs will be based on the 28nm or 20nm process, which means they will probably be churned out by TSMC, which has a significant lead in the 28nm process. Morgan Stanly reckons TSMC stands to generate about $650 million in additional revenues on the back of ARM PC chips.

ARM to capture 10 percent of PC market by 2013? - More news at DV Hardware

AMD Piledriver just 10 percent faster than Bulldozer?

A leaked slide claimed to originate from AMD claims Bulldozer will be succeeded by Piledriver. Dubbed FX Next, this next-gen chip is claimed to offer a 10 percent increase in x86 performance compared to Bulldozer.

What's new in Piledriver? According to the slide, a 10% increase in x86 performance. Version 3.0 of Turbo Core is also on the menu, as are a couple of new instructions. FX Next will reportedly use the same AM3+ socket as the first wave of Bulldozer CPUs, so you should be able to pop it into existing motherboards.

The AMD slide suggests that FX Next will use the same 9-series chipsets that have been around since May. Those chipsets are actually just rebranded versions of AMD's old 8-series gear, which has been gracing motherboards for a year and a half now. That means no native USB 3.0 support and a slower 6Gbps SATA controller than competing Intel platforms. The 990FX does offer gobs of PCI Express 2.0 connectivity, but that's gonna look dated if PCIe 3.0 hardware starts popping up next year.

Source: TechReport

AMD Piledriver just 10 percent faster than Bulldozer? - More news at DV Hardware