Intel, TSMC Announce Atom Partnership

From DailyTech: Producing the silicon chips at the heart of the myriad of electronic devices we take for granted today is becoming more and more expensive. As a result of this predicament, many companies that once built their own chips are now outsourcing the manufacturing of chips to other sources.

Intel and TSMC have announced details on a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) today that has the two firms collaborating on addressing technology platform, intellectual property infrastructure, and SoC solutions. TSMC is the world's largest made-to-order chip foundry.

As part of the collaboration, Intel Atom CPU cores will be ported to the TSMC technology platform including processes, IP, libraries, and design flows. The result will have Intel Atom SoCs available for a wider range of applications. Intel says it will significantly broaden the market opportunities for the Atom SoCs and accelerate the deployment through multiple SoC implementations.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in a statement, "We believe this effort will make it easier for customers with significant design expertise to take advantage of benefits of the Intel Architecture in a manner that allows them to customize the implementation precisely to their needs. The combination of the compelling benefits of our Atom processor combined with the experience and technology of TSMC is another step in our long-term strategic relationship."

View: Article @ Source Site