TSMC 40nm yield issues resurface, CEO promises fix by year-end
 

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has revealed it recently run into issues with its 40nm process technology impacting yields. Company chairman and CEO Morris Chang pledged the issue will be solved within the quarter.

TSMC said it has seen yield rates for its 40nm node drop to 40% due chamber matching issues. Main customers for TSMC's 40nm processes are GPU vendors AMD, which recently launched its new 40nm-based Radeon 5870 series, and Nvidia, who is scheduled to launch its 40nm-based GT300 series of chips in December, according to previous reports. TSMC's recent issues may impact the shipping schedules of the GPU vendors, market watchers commented.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20091030PD209.html

So it will be fixed by the time Nvidia is ready to launch the gt300, while poor ATI can't sell more hd5xxx cards simply cause they can't produce them fast enough.
Talk about bad timing, or good one depending on the viewpoint.

NVidia will launch exactly zilch come December 2009... The GT300 will at the earliest see the light around March/April 2010, if and when NVidia gets everything right... but don't hold yer breath, unless you want to wind-up all blue-ish on a CPR :D

See this (older, but still very relevant) Inquirer article about the shenanigans going on... ;)

Relevant? That article makes some fanboy tirades look well written. Many points made are not directly relevant and thrown in to stack the argument, some points have been proven false in the interim, and it is way to early to make the call if there is a potential market for what Fermi is targeting. About the only thing I'd agree on was the time frame... Q1'10. :)

Everything depends on one's view, of course. I found (and find) a lot of stuff to be accurate and thus relevant. Myself, I'll be having me an ATI for the very first time (had NVidia cards since the GeForce 2, currently running an Asus EN8800GTS-Top), because of the instal of Windows 7 (Ultimate) and DirectX 11, which NVidia lacks sourly.

I only hope that the yield probs won't affect the present shipping/market too much and that I don't have to wait three months for my ordered Asus 5870...