Insiders from the GPU industry report improvement in graphics card shipments during this upcoming summer season
A recent DigiTimes report shows that industry insiders are planning to see a shift in the summer of 2022. Over the last several years, manufacturers of graphics cards have depended on Ajinomoto Fine-Techno Company to produce Ajinomoto build-up films substrates or ABF substrates. Intel utilized these ABF substrates to connect to the company’s PCB designs. The company used film-like insulation technology produced by Ajinomoto Company to develop more robust microprocessors. However, the technology was around before the 1990s when Ajinomoto Fine-Techno Company first discovered the insulation material in the 1970s. Intel found that Intel needed the material’s exceptional electrical insulation properties to push its technology forward. Since then, the ABF substrate technology has found use in most graphics card designs, as well as packaging for CPUs, chips, integrated networking circuits, automotive processors, and many more products. The dependency on the substrate insulation company was a fair amount of the stagnant move of graphic cards in the industry. AMD and Intel have promised their users that they will look into changing the dependency and helping the market begin anew. DigiTimes report today cited that insiders from ASRock & TUL (PowerColor) should see a significant improvement in the current ABF substrate shortage starting this summer. AMD and Intel have also reported the same, looking at alternate substrate partners to assist with the graphics card manufacturing process. Intel’s Pat Gelsinger also appears to see optimism with the market: — Dr. Lisa Su, AMD CEO During the last few years, package production capacities and ABF substrates have diminished in supply due to demands for more computers and devices during the pandemic. ABF substrate suppliers, such as NanYa and Unimicron, both located in Taiwan, are doing what they can for manufacturers to help take some of the workloads off of Ajinomoto Fine-Techno Company in their manufacturing process. With the additional factories built to make sure this process comes to reality, the shortage looks like it will finally see the light this year. — Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO Not all ABF substrate supply reports have shown the same results. Singapore’s Business Times reported in September of 2021 that the ABF substrate supplies would stay halted until closer to 2025. ASRock and TUL are partners with AMD and could be on par with Dr. Su’s anticipation of the future graphics card manufacturing situation. It is under speculation that both ASRock and TUL can gain access to materials due to increasing payment through AMD. News Source: Tomshardware
