NVIDIA Can’t make 28nm Kal-El Tegra 3

NVIDIA has been very enthusiastic about upgrading to the 28nm manufacturing process to produce the Kal-El Tegra 3 chip.

Unfortunately, NVIDIA’s manufacturer TSMC will have only just set-up its 28nm node this year. As such they will only start production of 28nm wafers close to the end of the year while NVIDIA wants its Kal-El chips out by August.

“28nm is not available this year, not until the very end of the year. I think, for us to ship [Tegra Kal El] production out in Q3, we have to start wafers in early Q2, right? So, 28nm is not an option,”

said Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia, during a conference call with financial analysts, according to X-bit Labs.

“Secondly, 40nm is now in the third year of its production, and the yields are fabulous. […] So 40nm process technology is absolutely the right approach. It is the most mature, and we can go into very high [volume] production very quickly because the yields are so great.”

So it seems Kal-El will also be produced using a 40nm manufacturing process, just like Tegra 2, while it will still give improved performance it’s a shame they couldn’t quite take it to the next level just yet.