TSMC is clearly doing very nicely, thank you out of its relationship with Nvidia. The foundry's insitutional investors claim that 80 per cent of its 0.15 micron and 0.18 micron production lines are punching out parts to the graphics chip designer's specifications, according to a report in the Commercial Times.

It seems Nividia, which uses TSMC to produce its various grapics chips, along with its nForce chipset and the core logic it designed for Microsoft's Xbox console, is flooding the foundry with orders.

That's good news for TSMC, which had a bit of a rough ride through the early and middle stages of the year thanks to the downturn in world semiconductor sales.

It's also good new for Nvidia investors. The more orders it places with TSMC, the more orders it itself is receiving from OEMs, Microsoft and others. ®