AMD, IBM team up on new chip technologies

Computerworld - Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and IBM said today that they are co-developing microprocessing technologies for use in future chips -- an alliance that could help AMD better compete with rival Intel Corp.
The two companies plan to work together on new processes to improve microprocessor performance and reduce power consumption. The new technologies will be based on advanced structures and materials such as high-speed silicon-on-insulator transistors, copper interconnects and improved "low-k dielectric" insulation, the companies said in a statement.
Under the deal, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD and IBM will jointly develop semiconductor manufacturing technologies for 65-nanometer (nm) and 45-nm chips to be implemented on 300-millimeter diameter silicon wafers. (A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.)
The companies said they will be able to use the new technologies in their own chip-manufacturing plants and in conjunction with some of their manufacturing partners. The first products based on the new 65-nm chips should be available in 2005, according to the companies. Work is expected to begin by Jan. 30.
AMD spokesman Rob Keosheyan declined to comment on the cost of IBM's services.
Dean McCarron, an analyst at Mercury Research Inc. in Cave Creek, Ariz., said the deal will allow both companies to develop new microprocessors less expensively than if they were each to go it alone. For AMD, that means being better able to compete with the deep pockets of Intel, he said.
Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Insight 64 in Saratoga, Calif., agreed. He said that developing new semiconductor technologies is an expensive game and that the new alliance will lower AMD's development costs, putting it in a better position to keep pace with Intel.