Nvidia reportedly prioritizing dual-die Blackwell GPUs with CoWoS-L packaging
Demand for Nvidia's bleeding-edge Blackwell dual-die designs is reportedly overtaking Nvidia's lower-end single-die designs. TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from Medium reports that the trillion-dollar GPU manufacturing giant has updated its Blackwell architecture roadmap to prioritize dual-die designs featuring CoWoS-L packaging. Starting in the first quarter of this year, Nvidia will reportedly focus on its 200 series Blackwell GPUs. However, it's important to note that this only includes multi-die versions of the 200 series, such as the GB200 NVL72 — single-die versions of the 200 series, such as the B200A, have been discontinued. Likewise, Nvidia apparently plans to prioritize B300 series models that take advantage of multiple dies, especially the GB300 NVL72. B300 GPU variants that only use a single die will have a low-priority role in manufacturing due to higher demand for the multi-die variants. Nvidia's high-priority Blackwell GPU models use TSMC's more advanced CoWoS-L technology. The discontinued B200A and the single-die B300 GPUs both use CoWoS-S. Due to these changes, certain suppliers will be hit "particularly hard" as Nvidia prioritizes dual-die designs. Thus, the CoWoS-L packaging will be required to build those models. Those supplying Nvidia with CoWoS-S will suffer the largest impact from Nvidia's new roadmap. However, TSMC purportedly will not be significantly impacted by these changes. The Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer plans to prioritize CoWoS-L as its mainstream solution, which aligns with Nvidia's plans to use CoWoS-L as its dominant solution. Additionally, transitioning from B200 to B300 manufacturing involves the same FEoL process, which will improve production efficiency and reduce potential downtime. TSMC expects AI/HPC to be its key source of growth for 2025. CoWoS-S and CoWoS-L, are packaging technologies made by TSMC. CoWoS-S, or Chip on Wafer on Substrate with silicon interposer, offers high density interconnects and deep trench capacitors over a large silicon interposer area to accommodate components such as logic chipsets and HBM memory. CoWoS-L combines CoWoS-S with InFO, or Integrate Fan-Out technologies, to provide greater flexibility when using an interposer with an LSI or Local Silicon Interconnect chip for die-to-die interconnect. These bridges are a critical part of the design, and are why multi-chip Blackwell GPUs have been able to maintain their 10TB/s NVLink interconnect.
Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.
