Globalfoundries didn’t need long to become famous among semiconductor manufacturers. Processor developer AMD is both founder and so far the only customer at Globalfoundries, something that should change very soon. It’s already certain that AMD will transfer the making of its Radeon graphics circuits to Globalfoundries, but that it is also searching for new customers outside the company while preparing the opening of Fab 2.
The new fab has taken three years to build and cost around 4.2 billion dollar, around 33 billion. With such a limited amount of customers many have wondered what Globalfoundries will do with the increased production volume, something Jon Carvill has attempted to answer in the official blog.
Our customer acquisition activities also continue at a fevered pace and we have and will continue to engage with the world’s biggest fabless and fablite semiconductor companies and I am pleased to say that there’s tremendous interest in GLOBALFOUNDRIES. So much so, that we expect to be able to make some new announcements in this area imminently with the goal to have multiple foundry customers on board by the end of 2009.
If we are to believe the company self it has a bright future ahead of it and that is despite the fact it is not very interested in adapting new technology that enables 450mm silicon wafers. Instead, Globalfoundries says that those who have to move on to 450mm wafers are rather those who are having problems with the 300mm technology, something it claims to have control over.
At GLOBALFOUNDRIES, we see a tremendous amount of headroom left in the 300mm process. We are tapping our expertise in lean manufacturing to extend the lifecycle of the industry’s current 300mm investments, and we are investing more than $4 billion in a new, state-of-the-art 300mm fab in upstate New York because we are confident in our ability to get the most out of this technology generation.
The plans for deviating manufacturing processes are considerably more aggressive where it is hoping to have 28nm ready in the second half 2012 and quickly move on to 22nm, from the 45nm it uses today.
Rendering of Globalfoundries Fab 2 in Saratoga County, N.Y
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