Rumor mill: UMC to join IBM 'fab club'?

Mark LaPedus, EE Times
(02/11/2009 12:49 PM EST)

SAN FRANCISCO -- Rumors at ISSCC and other events are that Taiwan foundry vendor United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) is mulling over plans to join IBM's ''fab club.''

At present, UMC is developing leading-edge process technology by itself. This is a costly effort--even for Intel.

UMC has a 45-/40-nm process, but can it do 32-nm and beyond? It can barely keep up with rival TSMC.

To help its efforts, UMC recently joined Sematech. But UMC is also looking to join IBM's technology platform alliance, sources said.

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