Samsung Joins IBM And Chartered On 90-Nanometer Common Design-Enablement Platform
SINGAPORE, EAST FISHKILL, N.Y., and SEOUL, S. KOREA – IBM, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, today announced that Samsung has licensed the 90-nanometer (nm) common design enablement technology utilized by IBM and Chartered. As a result of this license agreement, Samsung, IBM and Chartered can make available common foundry design kits and tests chips as well as work with design enablement parties to provide future third-party solutions, initially for the 90nm baseline and low-power CMOS logic processes.
The announcement builds on Samsung's licensing rights to the jointly developed 90nm process platform, with the goal of expanding customers' flexibility to source designs among the manufacturing facilities of Samsung, IBM and Chartered. Samsung also collaborates with IBM, Chartered and Infineon for the development of 65nm process technologies.
"The synergy created from the joint technology process development program at 65nm has increased our confidence in the common platform. The 90nm design enablement platform complements the leading-edge production capacity available at Samsung and increases sourcing flexibility for customers. We firmly believe the common platform to be a truly attractive manufacturing model for the Nano-Age," said KP Suh, Executive Vice President of System LSI Technology Development at Samsung Electronics. "The arrangement that we have with IBM and Chartered to provide mutual design enablement and increase compatibility among our fabs will be a great benefit to our internal users and external customers."
"As an electronics leader, Samsung adds valuable system-level understanding and expertise to the common platform that should benefit our customers, both in terms of the underlying process as well as the overall open enablement solutions we offer," said Steve Longoria, vice president, Semiconductor Technology Platform for IBM.
"We are pleased to have Samsung involved at multiple levels of this collaboration and look forward to providing increased open and collaborative solutions to the marketplace through our common 90nm enablement platform."
"The transition to 90nm and 300-millimeter manufacturing has drawn the industry to deeper and broader levels of collaboration," said Kevin Meyer, vice president of worldwide marketing at Chartered. "As a global leader in digital convergence products and leading semiconductor manufacturer, Samsung's participation at 90nm is an endorsement of the common platform approach. We look forward to leveraging their breadth of experience and expertise to jointly provide customers with even greater levels of sourcing flexibility and more robust design enablement solutions."
About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key IBM Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that help enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business on demand. For more information about IBM, visit http://www.ibm.com. For more information on IBM's on demand strategy, visit http://www.ibm.com/ondemand.
About Chartered
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (Nasdaq: CHRT, SGX-ST: CHARTERED), one of the world's top dedicated semiconductor foundries, offers leading-edge technologies down to 90 nanometer (nm) to enable today's system-on-chip designs. The company further serves its customers' needs through a collaborative, joint development approach on a technology roadmap to 45nm. Chartered's strategy is based on open and comprehensive design enablement solutions, manufacturing enhancement strategies, and a commitment to flexible sourcing. In Singapore, the company operates a 300mm fabrication facility and four 200mm facilities. Information about Chartered can be found at www.charteredsemi.com.
Chartered is a founding member of Power.org, an open standards community formed in December 2004 around chips and systems, which use Power Architecture technology.
About Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2004 parent company sales of US$55.2 billion and net income of US$10.3 billion. Employing approximately 123,000 people in 93 offices in 48 countries, the company consists of five main business units: Digital Appliance Business, Digital Media Business, LCD Business, Semiconductor Business and Telecommunication Network Business. Recognized as one of the fastest growing brands, Samsung Electronics is the world's largest producer of color monitors, color TVs, memory chips and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.