A high ranked Globalfoundies official has confirmed that they will be making GPUs for ATI. This doesn’t come as much surprise, but it is the first time that the company has officially confirmed this.

The confusing part is when this is going to happen, as on Globalfoundries' roadmap, the plan of bulk production in 40nm / 45nm in scheduled for early Q4 2010 and this is one optimistic, best case scenario date. Even then, Globalfoundies should only be ready for low power chips bulk production and we don’t believe that graphics chips fit this envelope.

It looks like AMD might have to stick with TSMC at least until the second half of 2011 when Globalfoundies gets ready with its 28nm bulk process. The 32nm bulk chips are possible but so far, for ATI they are unlikely. Globalfoundies might be ready to do bulk 32nm in the second half of 2010 if the client orders enough chips.