Foundries News

• TSMC Expects to Enter 45nm Production in September (Monday Apr. 09, 2007)
  TSMC's 45nm low power process (LP) provides twice the density of 65nm with significantly lower power and manufacturing cost per die. End products are expected to achieve 40 percent greater functionality or 40 percent smaller die size, with reduced power consumption. These factors are particularly crucial for system on chip (SoC) designs with an ever-smaller footprint for cell phones, portable media players, PDAs and other handheld devices.
  
  
• TSMC Announces 55nm Process Technology Readiness (Tuesday Mar. 27, 2007)
  Because the 55nm process is a direct shrink, IP providers can leverage existing libraries and port their 65nm designs with minimal risk and effort. The 55nm logic family includes general purpose (GP) and consumer (GC) platforms. Initial production of the 55GP begins this quarter, followed later in the year by 55GC.
  
  
• SMIC and Cascade Microtech Partner to Establish New Mixed-signal RFIC Design Service Lab in Shanghai (Thursday Mar. 15, 2007)
  Cascade Microtech's industry-leading 300mm wafer-level RF test systems chosen by SMIC to enable the next generation of wireless ICs
  
  
• IBM starts making Cell processor on 65-nm process (Thursday Mar. 15, 2007)
  IBM has started making its Cell processor on a 65-nm Silicon-on-Insulator process at its East Fishkill, New York plant, moving from a 90-nm process to achieve higher speeds and lower power.
  
  
• Philips and TSMC Announce Joint Plan to Facilitate Orderly Exit by Philips from TSMC Shareholding (Friday Mar. 09, 2007)
  Philips and TSMC Announce Joint Plan to Facilitate Orderly Exit by Philips from TSMC Shareholding
  
  
• TSMC Achieves 65 Nanometer Embedded DRAM Milestone (Tuesday Mar. 06, 2007)
  TSMC today announced the foundry industry's first functional 65nm embedded DRAM customer product. The product contains millions of DRAM bits and was silicon verified first time right.
  
  
• New MOSIS Shared Wafer Service on IBM’s 130nm 8WL Process Makes High-Performance RF Chip Fabrication Affordable (Friday Mar. 02, 2007)
  MOSIS, a provider of low-cost prototyping and small volume production services for custom ASICs, announces prototype and low volume fabrication access to IBM's fourth generation foundry technology, 8WL, the 130 nanometer (nm) silicon germanium (SiGe) bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) process.
  
  
• Chartered Extends Technology Development Agreement with IBM to 32nm (Monday Feb. 26, 2007)
  As with previous nodes, 32nm development activities will be conducted at IBM's state-of-the-art 300 millimeter (mm) semiconductor fabrication facility in East Fishkill, N.Y. Each company will have the ability to implement the jointly developed processes in its own manufacturing facilities.
  
  
• Tower Semiconductor Begins Production of CopperGate’s Next Generation HomePNA Product (Tuesday Feb. 20, 2007)
  The new CopperGate’s new product is implemented using Tower’s Fab2 0.18-micron process. Design and manufacturing services for the product are provided by Open-Silicon, a leading third party ASIC house
  
  
• IBM Unveils World's Fastest On-Chip Dynamic Memory Technology (Wednesday Feb. 14, 2007)
  Breakthrough System-on-a-Chip Design Speeds Multi-Core, Graphics, and Networking Performance While Reducing Energy
  
  
• TSMC Opens Office in India (Monday Feb. 05, 2007)
  The office's primary mission is to locally support existing TSMC customers in North America, Europe and Asia with design activities in India as well as to help new fabless companies in India to grow and expand by leveraging TSMC's worldwide resources
  
  
• Dongbu Electronics Extends ARM Physical IP Design Support to 130-Nanometer Node (Thursday Jan. 25, 2007)
  ARM Low-Power and Speed-and-Density IP Enables SoC Designs for Mobile and Portable Consumer Applications
  
  
• TSMC Reports Fourth Quarter EPS of NT$1.08 (Thursday Jan. 25, 2007)
  Year-over-year, fourth quarter revenue decreased 5.4% while net income and diluted EPS decreased 17.7% and 17.8%, respectively.
  
  
• MagnaChip Foundry Expands IP Offering (Monday Jan. 22, 2007)
  MagnaChip partners with IP providers, who license IP directly to MagnaChip's customers. As a result, MagnaChip's customers have access to proven IP that otherwise would be costly to develop in-house. MagnaChip, in turn, is able to attract leading customers with this offering and to offer more sophisticated products and services consistent with its specialty foundry strategy.
  
  
• TSMC December 2006 Sales Report (Wednesday Jan. 10, 2007)
  TSMC today announced its net sales for December 2006: on an unconsolidated basis, sales were NT$22,376 million, a decrease of 9.4 percent from November 2006 and a decrease of 18.4 percent from December 2005.
  
  
• TSMC Welcomes Government Approval for 0.18 Micron Generation Technology Transfer to China (Friday Dec. 29, 2006)
  The government of Taiwan, R.O.C., approved on December 29 TSMC’s application to transfer 0.18 micron generation semiconductor process technology to China for production. TSMC welcomes the decision and believes that it will help our competitiveness in the China market.
  
  
• Toshiba, Sony and NEC Electronics Unveil Mass Production Platform Technology for 45nm Generation High Performance System LSI (Thursday Dec. 14, 2006)
  The high performance 45nm platform technology optimizes a balance of high performance and high reliability while combining individual elemental technology with new technologies and improvements
  
  
• Dongbu Electronics Adds ARM Metro Low-Power Library To Design Support Portfolio (Wednesday Dec. 13, 2006)
  New 0.18-micron Standard Cell Library Enables Low-Power Chip Designs, Significantly Reducing Power and Chip Size for Mobile and Portable Consumer Applications
  
  
• Mentor Graphics and TSMC Provide TSMC-Qualified Process Design Kit for 0.13 micron Mixed-Mode and RF Design (Thursday Nov. 30, 2006)
  TSMC has long been providing foundry-qualified design rule check (DRC), layout versus schematic (LVS), and parasitic extraction rule decks qualified for the Mentor Graphics Calibre® platform, as well as Spice models for Mentor’s Eldo® Spice simulator.
  
  
• Clear Shape and UMC Release DFM-Driven Design Flow (Monday Nov. 27, 2006)
  Flow Focuses on Systematic Variation Impact on Catastrophic and Parametric Issues
  
  
• Tower Semiconductor Expands Its Previously Announced Equity Private Placement and Raises Approximately $11 Million (Thursday Nov. 23, 2006)
  Tower Semiconductor Expands Its Previously Announced Equity Private Placement and Raises Approximately $11 Million
  
  
• UMC Produces Working 45-nanometer ICs (Monday Nov. 20, 2006)
  Immersion Lithography and 2.5 low-k Used to Manufacture Functional SRAM Chips
  
  
• TSMC October 2006 Sales Report (Friday Nov. 10, 2006)
  TSMC today announced its net sales for October 2006: on an unconsolidated basis, sales were NT$26,850 million, approximately at the same level compared to September 2006 and an increase of 2.4 percent over October 2005.
  
  
• UMC Delivers Leading-edge 65nm FPGAs to Xilinx (Wednesday Nov. 08, 2006)
  This new devices deliver a 65 percent logic capacity increase over previous generation FPGAs to enable the industry's highest gate count, with approximately 1.1 billion transistors
  
  
• TSMC Board Approves Capital Appropriation for 65nm and 90nm Capacity (Tuesday Nov. 07, 2006)
  TSMC today held a meeting of the Board of Directors, which approved capital appropriation of US$1,133.4 million to expand 65 and 90 nanometer process capacity in 300mm wafer fabs
  
  
• Tower Semiconductor Launches 0.18-Micron High-Voltage Technology (Monday Nov. 06, 2006)
  High-Voltage LDMOS Technology Widely Used in Cell Phone and Hand-Held Displays
  
  
• Tower Semiconductor Begins Production of UXGA (Two-Mega-Pixel) and VGA Image Sensors for SuperPix of China (Thursday Nov. 02, 2006)
  New Partnership is a Significant Venture into the Chinese Market
  
  
• Chartered Invests in Design Services Firm to Enhance Design Readiness of Value-Added Solutions (Monday Oct. 30, 2006)
  
  
  
• Fujitsu, Advantest Establish 'e-Shuttle' JV for LSI Prototyping Services (Monday Oct. 30, 2006)
  Fujitsu Limited and Advantest Corporation today announced their agreement to establish on November 1 a new joint venture, e-Shuttle, Inc., to provide prototyping services for leading-edge large-scale integrated circuit (LSI) semiconductors.
  
  
• Soitec and ARM Collaborate in SOI Development Program (Friday Oct. 27, 2006)
  Partnership will make SOI technology available to a broader range of companies and help accelerate adoption within high-performance, low-power electronic devices