Samsung Joins IBM, Chartered on 90nm Design Enablement Platform
Online staff -- EDN, May 24, 2005
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has joined IBM and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, licensing the 90nm common design enablement technology used by Big Blue and the foundry.
As a result of the agreement, the trio 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.
This isn't the first time Samsung has linked up with IBM and Chartered. The company collaborated with the two and Infineon for the development of 65nm process technologies in March 2004. That time, too, Samsung was the last to join, with the three companies establishing a partnership prior to its signing up.
“The synergy created from the joint technology process development program at 65nm has increased our confidence in the common platform," said KP Suh, executive VP of system LSI technology development at Samsung Electronics, in a statement. "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."
Further, today's 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.
“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,” Steve Longoria, VP semiconductor technology platform for IBM, added in the statement.
“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.”
