Real men have fabs... or do they?

By _EETimes Blog

November 24, 2010

"Real men have fabs." AMD founder Jerry Sanders made the point—in blunt, politically incorrect fashion—that  maintaining control over IC manufacturing was crucial for a top-tier semiconductor company. The fabless semiconductor community heartily disagrees. In fact, proponents of the fabless business model often quote Sanders to highlight the folly of not following their strategy. Even Sander's own AMD eventually spun out its manufacturing capability with the "asset light" or "asset smart" strategy that led to the creation of Globalfoundries.

Except for Intel and the memory vendors, semicos who didn't take up the fabless or at least fab-light mantra were ridiculed. Process technology began to be viewed as commoditized and unable to provide a competitive advantage. Continuing down the integrated device manufacturer path was a sure path to bankruptcy. At least that became the conventional wisdom.

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