AMD is closing in on the competition, and the battle between the two processor giants is getting more intense

After AMD turned to cooperate with TSMC, it maintained its leading position in the 7nm process. Recently, foreign media reported that the bare die yield of 7nm Zen 2 architecture wafers has reached 70%, which is better than market expectations. With AMD's 7nm processor about to be launched, the battle between the two processor giants in the second half of the year may become more intense.

This year, Computex added a CEO Keynote, and for the first time invited AMD President and CEO Lisa Su to give a speech on the topic of "New Generation of High-Performance Computing", discussing the development of high-performance computing technology and industry layout. The market believes that AMD will use this opportunity to announce the launch details of the 7-nanometer server processor EPYC ROME and the third-generation PC processor Ryzen 3000.

AMD President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su demonstrates the next-generation 7nm EPYC processor

Acer Chairman Chen Junsheng has been in the semiconductor industry for 23 years and has worked for IBM, Intel and TSMC in the past. Regarding AMD's observation, he said that it is obvious that AMD continues to increase its market share. Although it does not have it now, 7-nanometer products will be available in the second half of the year, ahead of Intel's 10-nanometer progress. But this alone is not enough, he said, AMD still has one more thing to work on.

Chen Junsheng said that the whole world can see that AMD is gaining market share as Intel processor supply is tight, but the competitive relationship can be observed from two conditions. The first situation is the difference between "being able to supply" and "not being able to supply", and the second is the process. AMD's 7nm process is ahead of Intel's 10nm.

Chen Junsheng said that AMD must "redeem itself" from GlobalFoundries before it can transfer its production capacity to TSMC. Although it has not yet entered mass production, it is expected that AMD 7nm will be shipped in the second half of the year.

Chen Junsheng pointed out that from the semiconductor perspective, AMD's mass production of new products using the 7nm process will definitely have an impact on competition. Generally speaking, products with new processes have better performance and heat dissipation than those with old processes. However, he also reminded that competition cannot be observed solely from the perspective of specifications.

Chen Junsheng said that everyone should not forget that Intel has been continuously optimizing ISV (independent software developer) software over the past years. The CPU is not just about specifications, but also about running points. "The release of 7 nanometers does not mean that it will be invincible," Chen Junsheng said. AMD still has a lot of work to do in the future.

Chen Junsheng said that AMD is currently releasing the CPU first, and will definitely strive to make the product well first, and then work on the CPU hard work such as multi-cores and threads. However, the release of 7nm does not mean the end, and there is still a lot of software optimization work to be done.

Intel's 14nm process processors continue to be out of stock, and the launch of new 10nm products has been delayed, which has brought an impact on the computer industry. Chen Junsheng pointed out that Intel's CPU supply eased in the first quarter, and the second quarter will be better than the first quarter. Relatively speaking, the supply of high-end processors is slightly better, while the low-end is under great pressure, so they will go all out for high-end models to raise the ASP (average selling price).

AMD released the Zen 2 architecture server processor Rome at the end of last year, announcing that it would be available in mid-2019, supporting up to 64 cores. Due to the rumored design update, the yield rate has been greatly improved. The latest news is that the bare chip yield rate has reached 70%, and TSMC is still waiting for the yield rate to be improved in the future. Large-scale supply can be expected in the second half of the year. Rumors also indicate that Intel's 28-core yield rate is only 35%, while AMD's yield rate is twice that of its competitors. Since the yield rate determines the cost, AMD will be more price competitive.

AMD's business has also made some progress. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced that its cloud services will adopt the AMD platform and continue to expand the application market. Google has also announced that the customized GPU solution used in the streaming game service platform Stadia is AMD.

AMD also provides support for new customer NTT Data's CAFIS (Credit and Financial Information System) payment platform in Japan; and HostKey cloud service customer announced cooperation in Europe.