SAN FRANCISCO— "Saying the company experienced solid growth in demand for chips across all major applications, leading
foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Thursday (Oct. 29)
reported its best revenue and profit numbers in a year.
TSMC
reported a net income of NT$30.55 billion ($938.2 million) on sales of
NT$89.9 billion ($2.76 billion) for the third quarter, ended Sept. 30.
Sales
were up 21 percent compared to the second quarter, but down 3 percent
compared to the third quarter of 2008, TSMC (Hsinchu, Taiwan) said. Net income was up 25 percent sequentially and flat year-to-year, TSMC said.
Elsewhere in the news today reports indicate a different story developing… TSMC 40nm yield issues resurface, CEO promises fix by year-end
Claire Sung, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Friday 30 October 2009]
"Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has revealed it recently run
into issues with its 40nm process technology impacting yields. Company
chairman and CEO Morris Chang pledged the issue will be solved within
the quarter.
TSMC said it has seen yield rates for its 40nm node
drop to 40% due chamber matching issues. Main customers for TSMC’s 40nm
processes are GPU vendors AMD, which recently launched its new
40nm-based Radeon 5870 series, and Nvidia, who is scheduled to launch
its 40nm-based GT300 series of chips in December, according to previous
reports. TSMC’s recent issues may impact the shipping schedules of the
GPU vendors, market watchers commented.
During TSMC’s July 2009
investors conference, Chang revealed that yield rates for 40nm
processes had improved to 60%, up from as low as 20-30% in the second
quarter of 2009.
In other news, TSMC has released its October
2009 investors report in which company CFO Lora Ho said, "Due to
stronger demand for 40nm and 65nm technologies, TSMC 2009 capex has
risen further and is expected to be around US$2.7 billion."
Accordingly, TSMC’s fourth-quarter capex may total around US$1.34
billion, up from US$971 million alloted in the third quarter and US$224
million in the second quarter.
TSMC revealed that 45/40nm
accounted for 4% of the company’s third-quarter revenues, compared to
1% in the first and second quarters. TSMC said it aims to push up the
sales proportion to 10% by the end of 2009." .
.
