Jan 08, 2021 23:00:00

Report that PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are squeezing the production line of semiconductor giant TSMC

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PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X home video game consoles released in November 2020 were both talked about because they were equipped with AMD's Zen 2 architecture-based CPU and GPU. However, even at the time of writing the article two months after its release, the market has not been supplied with a sufficient number, and the shortage of goods continues. ExtremeTech, a technical news site, points out that the surge in demand for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X has put pressure on TSMC's production line.

Report: Packaging Issues, PS5 Demand May Be Hurting TSMC Production --ExtremeTech
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/318937-report-packaging-issues-ps5-demand-may-be-hurting-tsmc-production

According to ExtremeTech, up to 80% of the 7nm process chips Sony and Microsoft purchased from AMD are reserved for home video game consoles. AMD's chips are not produced by AMD itself, but TSMC, the world's largest semiconductor foundry, has a production line.

According to ExtremeTech, with the advent of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, the demand for AMD CPUs and GPUs has skyrocketed, and TSMC will use TSMC as a chip insulator from around the fall of 2020 for the Ajinomoto Build-up Film (ABF) . It seems that suffering from a shortage has become a bottleneck in supply.

ABF is a high-performance semiconductor insulation material developed by the Ajinomoto Group. In modern CPUs where circuits are built at the nanometer level, it is commonplace to have a multi-layered structure in which multiple circuits are layered, and ABF is used to insulate between the layers. According to Ajinomoto, it is used in almost 100% of the world's major PCs.

This lack of ABF has a great impact not only on AMD but also on many chip makers such as Intel, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Apple and Samsung. Economic news media Digitimes reported in June 2020 that 'the supply shortage of ABF could worsen in 2021,' but ExtremeTech said the forecast seemed to be right.

ExtremeTech also acknowledges that the poor yield of GDDR6 used in PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X may contribute to the GPU shortage. However, ExtremeTech also said, 'It is not clear which component shortage is causing the supply shortage of game consoles,' he said, saying that this shortage of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X cannot be explained simply by the problem of yield. I will.

ExtremeTech claims that all major suppliers of ABF to TSMC are in short supply of ABF. In addition, due to lack of ABF, AMD will not be able to meet the demand for laptops, and it is expected that the problem will be exacerbated around the third quarter of 2021 when laptops with Zen 3 architecture CPUs will hit the market. doing.