Thursday, January 15, 2004
In an extension of their manufacturing partnership to chips based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, IBM Corp. and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. said Chartered will make 90-nm SOI-based products for IBM beginning next year.
The Wednesday (Jan. 14) announcement bolsters Chartered's plans for its 300-mm fab, which is expected to begin pilot production by the fourth quarter. Chartered, which operates five fabs in Singapore, is expected to begin 90-nm SOI production for IBM by mid-2005, according to the announcement.
“The agreement provides Chartered with a lead driver for Fab 7,” a spokeswoman for Chartered said. “It doesn't change our schedule, but it firms up our plans, and enhances our potential to reach critical mass.”
Chartered plans to bring up its 90-nm process at Fab 7. The building was completed some time ago, but equipping the fab was delayed due to the three-year industry downturn, the spokeswoman said.
In November 2002, Chartered and IBM announced a technology development agreement for bulk CMOS process technology at the 90-nm and 65-nm nodes, and a related second-source manufacturing agreement for bulk CMOS foundry parts, now extended to SOI.
Rick Doherty, principal analyst at the Envisioneering Group (Seaford, N.Y.),, said for IBM the Chartered relationship eases concerns by its high-volume foundry customers that IBM might run out of capacity at its East Fishkill, N.Y. 300-mm fab. ATI, Nvidia, Ninetendo, Sony, Qualcomm, Via, and Xilinx are among the announced foundry customers for IBM, and all have products with the potential for high-volumes that could exhaust the production capacity at East Fishkill.
Doherty noted that IBM also is working with Microsoft Corp. to develop the silicon for the next-generation Xbox game machine, another high-volume part that could be made at both Chartered and IBM fabs.
“The demand for the consumer and communications chips that IBM is making is cyclical, and we could see a capacity crunch coming as soon as late spring,” said Doherty.
John E. Kelly III, senior vice president in charge of IBM's technology group, said the agreement with Chartered “enables IBM to provide the dual sourcing clients want, and the flexibility we need to meet increasing demand.”
By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved
|
