NVIDIA is not only concerned about its technological present, but also the distant future. It now suffers from a shortage ofTSMC production capacity , from a bad payment system for the services of contractor, and secretly dreams to gain access to Intel production facilities .
NVIDIA sees the semiconductor industry in the transition to the use of silicon wafers 450 mm . Five of the largest semiconductor manufacturers led by Intel, Samsung and TSMC can afford to purchase equipment for processing 450 mm wafers, but they are not in a hurry to do so. This migration will require significant capital expenditures, and this constrains the modernization rate .
NVIDIA would like to see at the time of 14-nm process technology development already production facilities, allowing the use of silicon wafers 450 mm . Costs are allocated to a larger number of chips produced per wafer, and theoretically, the cost per unit of output declines.
The company is worried by the trend increase in terms of transition to a new process technology.
NVIDIA has already had to increase the number of engineers involved in designing chips, thirty times. In order to develop the next steps it will need to hire a technical process of engineering world. NVIDIA is now working to optimize the test procedure of finished chips, as well as improving systems design products. New process technologies do not give a reduction of energy consumption, as before, so to achieve savings account at the design stage of the chip.