IBM is certainly first string in process technology. The key is spending enough money to stay there, and getting adequate return on that money with limited output. This deal allows them to amortize the cost of process development over more wafers: those used by AMD. I think they need the money from AMD to defray the cost more than they need the technical expertise of the AMD engineers that will move to NY.
Based on the technical specifications of the UMC 0.13u process it was very clear that it would not be adequate to manufacture anywhere near state of the art microprocessors. I am surprised it took AMD this long to realize that they needed to infuse some serious technical know how into UMC. It appears they have failed in that endeavor.
I think AMD would have a manufacturing strategy figured out before jumping the UMC ship. I am surprised they have not shared that with us yet. --Alan
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