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Infineon
Technologies plans to use Chartered Semiconductor's 300mm fab to fabricate 65nm
communications chips next year. Initial prototyping is to begin in the 1Q06
with production starting in the 4Q06, Infineon stated in a press release. The
move further endorses Infineon's move to not fabricate chips in-house at the
65nm node and beyond.
"Infineon
has decided to have the 65nm technology, developed together with Chartered, IBM
and Samsung, produced by Chartered in order to further expand its leading
position in customized products while achieving profitable growth," said
Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart, President and CEO of Infineon Technologies AG. "The
traditional positioning of semiconductor companies along the entire value chain
from development through to production and sales for logic products is in the
process of changing and is therefore subject of optimizing capital investment
and business development."
Infineon plans
to have some engineers from both the U.S and Europe work at Chartered in
Singapore to ensure a smooth integration of the variance in process
technologies to get acceptable volume production yields.
"Chartered
and Infineon already have a strong development and manufacturing alliance, and
this is an exciting next step," said Chia Song Hwee, President and CEO of
Chartered. "As a joint development alliance, Chartered, Infineon, IBM and
Samsung are realizing significant economical and technological advantages by
pooling resources and broad expertise. In this latest step, Infineon will
benefit from a seam-less transition from development to manufacturing with one
of its development partners, leveraging the manufacturing flexibility Chartered
offers."
Infineon also
reiterated that development work is on going in IBM's 300mm facility in East
Fishkill, New York for the 45nm node.
Three companies
have now publicly stated that they will be using Chartered's Fab 7 to fabricate
65nm IC's. Currently the foundry is aggressively ramping Fab 7 to meet the
needs of IBM, as Microsoft launches the Xbox360 using a co-designed
microprocessor. AMD also confirmed earlier this year that Chartered would be
producing its 64bit microprocessors in the second half of 2006. However, AMD
stated only this week that the schedule has been moved forward.
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