GlobalFoundries, the spinoff company from Advanced Micro Devices, will manufacture processors for wireless and computer devices for STMicroelectronics.
GlobalFoundries announced the deal with STMicroelectronics July 29, marking the first non-AMD customer for the young manufacturing company.
The announcement came less than a week after GlobalFoundries and AMD-along with federal, state and local officials-broke ground July 24 for a semiconductor manufacturing plant at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta, N.Y. Company officials say the $4.2 billion plant, which is expected to start manufacturing chips in 2012, will be the most advanced facility in the world.
AMD spun off GlobalFoundries in March as part of its “fabless” strategy. A manufacturing plant in Dresden, Germany, that was once owned by AMD is now owned by GlobalFoundries. The company’s production is centered at a 300-millimeter facility in Dresden called Fab 1.
The plant in New York will be Fab 2.
Those manufacturing facilities currently make AMD chips, and starting in 2010 they also will produce STMicroelectronics processors for wireless and handheld devices, as well as computers.
“When we launched GlobalFoundries, our long-term vision was to bring a new business model to the foundry market and to become the partner of choice for the largest and most innovative semiconductor design and manufacturing companies,” GlobalFoundries CEO Doug Gross said in a statement. “With the addition of an industry leader in low-power technology like STMicroelectronics, we now begin to deliver on this promise.”
GlobalFoundries will manufacture STMicroelectronics products based on 40-nanometer low-power bulk silicon technology, which company officials said results in good performance and longer battery life, all of which is in demand from wireless applications, handheld devices and consumer electronics.
AMD has a 34 percent ownership of GlobalFoundries, with an investment fund, Advanced Technology Investment, owning the other 66 percent.