Q: How has the market responded to Nvidia’s first 0.13-micron process graphics chip, the GeForce FX (NV30)? Could you tell us more about Nvidia’s production plans in 2003?
A: At the initial stage, Nvidia will ship 1.5 million NV30 chips and will also make cards based on the top-end GeForce FX 5800 Ultra (NV30 core) itself. The lower-end GeForce FX 5800 chips, however, will be released to downstream card manufacturers for production.
Currently, Nvidia’s wafer orders at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) are mostly intended for the new NV30-family chips. With launches of other NV30-family products in the near future, we expect that NV30-based products will account for more than 50% of Nvidia’s overall shipments by year-end.
So far, most of Nvidia’s graphics chips have been manufactured on the 0.15-micron process at TSMC’s 8-inch fabs, but we expect the ratio of 0.13-micron production will grow greatly this year. The timing of the transfer of production to the 12-inch fabs depends on TSMC’s schedule. When we move production to the 12-inch fabs, we will also start adopting the copper process. For the moment, we are not considering using low-k technology due to its immaturity at the upstream stage.
