Dresden FAB38 is fully capable of producing graphics chips. This is something that we’ve found out after our original story here, where AMD seniors claimed that Fab 36 and 38 are more advanced than TSMC.

This would mean that ATI would have to design a GPU for Dresden as AMD fabs and TSMC use different libraries, but eventually it would work and AMD would have even chances to hit some better yields if all goes well.

The big issue is if FAB38 would have the capacity to produce GPUs as AMD needs every wafer for its core business, the CPUs. Currently, we can bet that there is a lot of capacity, but this should change once AMD starts selling its 45nm parts.

We still have to see if Asset light means that AMD will sell pieces of Fab36 and FAb38 to some other companies and many sources imply that AMD might even spin off the Fabs to a separate company. Intel has reminded us that AMD still needs to own at least 51 percent of that new company to keep the license.

One thing is sure: if it ever makes strategically or financial sense, AMD will produce GPUs in its fabs and you can imagine that this would give them a huge advantage over Nvidia, who would have to rely on TSMC. As we said in our previous part, we are quite sure that Intel plans to manufacture its desktop science project called Larrabee.

Also read

Dresden FAB 38 is superior to TSMC