STMicroelectronics to give Globalfoundries a go

By _Chris Edwards

July 29, 2009

This morning, as its new customer was talking about Q2 results, Globalfoundries said STMicroelectronics has decided to shift some production to its Dresden fab. ST, a big customer of number-one foundry TSMC, will use the foundry spin-off from AMD to make chips based on a 40nm bulk-silicon process from next year.

As the deal is with ST rather than the 50/50 joint venture ST-Ericsson, it is possible that the Franco-Italian company will use Globalfoundries for consumer-product devices such as settop-box chips rather than the larger business of cellular handset integrated circuits (IC). But because of the way that ST consolidates results from ST-Ericsson, handset devices may also be covered in the deal. However, with 32nm and 28nm processes coming, advanced handset devices seem likely to stay with TSMC. Even so, coming on the day before the foundry discloses its own Q2 results, it's a headache for TSMC. Deals like this are perhaps one reason why Morris Chang decided to shift Rick Tsai aside and take over as CEO of TSMC as well as chairman.

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