An investment arm of Foxconn Electronics reportedly plans to acquire IC design house Socle Technology, in which Globalfoundries has a portion of shares, according to industry sources.

It has been rumored that Socle has been looking for new investors as the IC company needs more capital for venturing into the development of 20nm, 16nm and 14nm process nodes.

Additionally, Socle's cooperation with Globalfoundries has not been as smooth as expected due to frequent personnel reshuffles at the US-based foundry house, the sources indicated.

The sources also noted that Socle has completed development of IP for 28nm processes, but it has been prohibited from using other foundry houses to enable production of 28nm chips using its IP, affecting its business development.

Foxconn aims to build up its own design and technology capability for the production of application processors used in mobile devices, commented the sources.

By: DocMemory
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