Intel Corp (INTC)

[dhellman]

IBM, Chartered strike 12-inch deal on 90nm, 65nm processes
Press release; Jane Wang, DigiTimes.com [Thursday 28 November 2002]

[compare and contrast this deal with the AMD-UMC partnership .... ]

IBM and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, the world’s third-largest silicon foundry, this week announced a joint development and manufacturing agreement that covers 90nm and 65nm logic processes for production on 12-inch wafers. The multi-year agreement may be extended to include 45nm technology, said the companies.

The deal will allow the Singapore-based foundry to delay test production in its 12-inch Fab 7 until late in the third quarter of 2004 and instead gain 12-inch experience at IBM’s latest 12-inch facility in East Fishkill, New York. Chartered will be able to offer its customers some capacity in IBM’s new facility, while IBM expects to reciprocally rely on Chartered’s Fab 7 for additional capacity.

IBM and Chartered said the deal is aimed at achieving scale, cycle time and cost efficiencies in advanced process technology development and 12-inch manufacturing, while providing customers multiple sources of supply.

To assist foundry customers in designing with the new technologies, the two companies said they would work together with third-party providers of design tools and open-standard formats to help customers be able to move products between the two companies for production.

Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

“This agreement is intended to help our customers by making our advanced technologies more readily available for use in their applications,” said John Kelly, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Technology Group, in a statement.

“Chartered customers gain an enhanced total product solution and earlier access to 90nm technologies on 300mm [12-inch],” said Chia Song Hwee, president and CEO of Chartered.

The agreement also adds design support from foundries to cooperation on manufacturing.

The baseline 90nm technology is targeted for 12-inch production in East Fishkill in the third quarter of 2003. Details of 65nm development efforts will be disclosed to customers in the fourth quarter of 2003.



http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Article2.asp?datePublish=2002/11/28&pages=PR&seq=201