Time for a return to the customer-backed joint venture foundry?

Peter Clarke, EETimes
4/20/2012 11:05 AM EDT

Qualcomm and some other companies are leaving money on the table because they can't get enough 28-nm chips to meet demand out of foundry partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Horror of horrors some customers are looking for ways to switch other companies' chips into slots previously designed around those vendors' ICs.

Could this be one of the ways Intel gets a leg up in the smartphone and tablet computer markets? Whether or not that happens to any significant degree, the current undersupply situation looks set to trigger refinements to some business models.

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