Had I not been briefed personally I may not have believed it. Samsung and GLOBALFOUNDRIES will work closely together on satisfying 14nm wafer demand while sharing Samsung’s FinFET secret sauce. This tells me two things: Samsung has more 14nm design wins than I had originally reported and the new GF CEO is serious about the pure play foundry business which I had not reported, so I’m 0 for 2 on this one:
Samsung and GLOBALFOUNDRIES Forge Strategic Collaboration to Deliver Multi-Sourced Offering of 14nm FinFET Semiconductor Technology. Shared technology allows global capacity for 14nm FinFET fabrication in the U.S. and Korea
Seoul, Korea and Santa Clara, Calif. April 17, 2014 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced a new strategic collaboration to deliver global capacity for 14 nanometer (nm) FinFET process technology. For the first time, the industry’s most advanced 14nm FinFET technology will be available at both Samsung and GLOBALFOUNDRIES, giving customers the assurance of supply that can only come from true design compatibility at multiple sources across the globe…
“This unprecedented collaboration will result in a global capacity footprint for 14nm FinFET technology that provides AMD with enhanced capabilities to bring our innovative IP into silicon on leading-edge technologies,” said Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of Global Business Units at AMD. “The work that GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Samsung are doing together will help AMD deliver our next generation of groundbreaking products with new levels of processing and graphics capabilities to devices ranging from low-power mobile devices, to next-generation dense servers to high-performance embedded solutions.”
“This strategic collaboration extends the value proposition of a single GDSII multi-sourcing to the FinFET nodes. With this true multi-source platform, Samsung and GLOBALFOUNDRIES have made it easy for fabless semiconductor companies to access FinFET technology and increase first-time silicon success,” said Dr. Stephen Woo, president of System LSI business, device solutions, Samsung Electronics Division. “Through this collaboration, we are advancing the foundry business and support model to satisfy what customers have been asking for.”
“Today’s announcement is further proof of the importance of collaboration to enable continued innovation in semiconductor manufacturing,” said GLOBALFOUNDRIES CEO Sanjay Jha. “With this industry-first alignment of 14nm FinFET production capabilities, we can offer greater choice and flexibility to the world’s leading fabless semiconductor companies, while helping the fabless industry to maintain its leadership in the mobile device market.”
This announcement was embargoed until now so I have not had a chance to speak with my closest 18,225 LinkedIn friends about it but I’m guessing there will be quite a bit of discussion in the Silicon Valley coffee houses. Even better, I will be at the EDPS Workshop in Monterey today and tomorrow with professionals from all walks of semiconductor life. This will be the most questioned topic for me, absolutely, since I’m the so-called foundry expert.
An interesting thing: On one side of the briefing table was Ana Hunter, Vice President of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, formerly Vice President Foundry, Samsung Semiconductors. On the other side was Kelvin Low, Senior Director, Foundry Marketing Samsung, formerly Director Product Marketing, GLOBALFOUNDRIES. It’s a small world after all.
Take a look at the Samsung-GLOBALFOUNDRIES 14nm Collaboration slide deck HERE and let me know what you think in the comments section. Personally, I think this is a real game changer for the fabless semiconductor ecosystem.
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