Did Intel Lose Altera?
According to Digitimes (via JPMorgan), noted FPGA vendor Altera , which had been loudly championing its shift to Intel's foundry for its high-end FPGAs, is crawling back to Taiwan Semiconductor . Altera touted that Intel's 14-nanometer process gave it power, performance, and density advantages over products built on TSMC's 16-nanometer process (which is really a 20-nanometer with FinFETs). The real question is whether Intel really did lose Altera, and if so, what the implications are.
Intel says it didn't lose Altera
Upon reading the Digitimes piece, I shot off an email to Intel's Chuck Mulloy asking if Intel did indeed lose the Altera business. His response was a clear "no." It seems likely that, at this stage in the development cycle, Altera would have to spend significant time and effort to make a switch to TSMC's process. Further, with Digitimes claiming in that same piece that TSMC's 20-nanometer yield is at about 50%, this would suggest that TSMC is far from true "volume" production of 20-nanometer parts. To put it into perspective, yield of 50% suggests that half of the chips that get built end up getting tossed. TSMC's 16-nanometer yields must be even worse.
Taking a longer term view
While Intel probably didn't "lose" (in the strictest sense) its Altera business, there is a chance that Altera may be designing future FPGAs based on TSMC's 16-nanometer process. If this is true -- and this is a big "if" -- the implications wouldn't be pretty for Intel. While such a defection would not necessarily reflect on the quality or advantages of Intel's manufacturing technology (Intel is known for process leadership), it would serve to solidify TSMC's claims that there is more to the story than just technology leadership.
Foolish bottom line
Intel has been a laggard of a stock for several years now, wildly under-performing semiconductor peers such as TSMC, and it seems that it just can't get a break on the news-flow/rumors front. While it is very unlikely that Intel has lost its current Altera business, and while TSMC is likely to continue to lag behind Intel in semiconductor technology development, the real question is whether Intel is well-suited to run a foundry business long-term. This will remain to be seen, and what Altera does at the 10-nanometer generation will be a pretty big "tell."
More compelling ideas from The Motley Fool
Let's face it, every investor wants to get in on revolutionary ideas before they hit it big. Like buying PC-maker Dell in the late 1980s, before the consumer computing boom. Or purchasing stock in e-commerce pioneer Amazon.com in the late 1990s, when it was nothing more than an upstart online bookstore. The problem is, most investors don't understand the key to investing in hyper-growth markets. The real trick is to find a small-cap "pure-play" and then watch as it grows in EXPLOSIVE lockstep with its industry. Our expert team of equity analysts has identified one stock that's poised to produce rocket-ship returns with the next $14.4 TRILLION industry. Click here to get the full story in this eye-opening report.
The article Did Intel Lose Altera? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Ashraf Eassa owns shares of Intel. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. The Motley Fool owns shares of Intel. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Copyright © 1995 - 2014 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
