"That is basically what we have figured out thus far is Tesla's doing the research fab, SpaceX doing the initial part of the large-scale TeraFab and then we got to figure out the rest," Musk said.
Licensing a process technology is one of the ways for TeraFab to get a fabrication node quickly (as it may take a decade to design a manufacturing tech from scratch), whereas for Intel, this could mean an influx of cash. Historically, chipmakers have licensed process technologies from others if they could not design their own node on time, or the parties wanted to create a virtual foundry with compelling capacity to compete with larger contract chipmakers.
For example, GlobalFoundries licensed Samsung's 14nm-class process technologies in 2014 – 2015 after it failed to complete development of its own 14nm XM production node. While there were rumors that GlobalFoundries produced some of Samsung's Exynos processors at its fab in New York, the first clearly attributable, high-volume GF-built 14nm products — AMD's Radeon RX 400-series 'Polaris' GPUs only showed up in 2016. This incited rumors about GF's inability to integrate the node and maximize yields. Rapidus is a more recent example, as it has licensed IBM's 2nm technology for its fabs.
It remains to be seen whether it is possible to license Intel's 1.4nm-class process technology and then port process recipes, tune tools, and maximize yields at a TeraFab facility. After all, modern process technologies are dramatically more complex than those from a decade ago.
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Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom\u2019s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-20/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Anton Shilov Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
usertests Intel could be on the cusp of a legendary comeback with Nova Lake and a "long-lived" LGA 1954 socket, money being pumped into its fabs, and adopting Nvidia graphics tiles. Reply
garbilkee I'd like to highlight language used by Elon about his facility using Intel's 14A: ""We plan to use Intel's 14A process, which is state-of-the-art and in fact not yet totally complete ," Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, said during Tesla's earning's call with analysts and investors. "By the time TeraFab scales up, 14A will be probably fairly mature or ready for prime time. 14A seems like the right move". Sounds like a cross-your-fingers situation Reply
bolweval garbilkee said: I'd like to highlight language used by Elon about his facility using Intel's 14A: ""We plan to use Intel's 14A process, which is state-of-the-art and in fact not yet totally complete ," Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, said during Tesla's earning's call with analysts and investors. "By the time TeraFab scales up, 14A will be probably fairly mature or ready for prime time. 14A seems like the right move". Sounds like a cross-your-fingers situation So is catching a giant booster with a giant pair of chop sticks… Reply
usertests garbilkee said: Sounds like a cross-your-fingers situation That's every Intel situation these days. Reply
S58_is_the_goat Is it me or is musk looking more and more like Conan O'Brian? Reply
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/elon-musk-says-terafab-will-use-intels-14a-process-technology-to-make-ai-chips-spacex-will-be-responsible-for-high-volume-chip-manufacturing-in-liekly-intel-tech-licensing-deal#main
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