London, England: IBM and its Common PlatformT technology partners, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung Electronics, along with joint-development alliance partners Infineon Technologies AG and Freescale Semiconductor, recently inked a series of semiconductor process development and manufacturing agreements.
The agreements will now include 32nm bulk CMOS process technologies and joint development of process design kits (PDKs) to support that technology. Building on the success of earlier development and manufacturing agreements at 90nm, 65nm, and 45nm, alliance partners will be able to produce highperformance, energy-efficient chips at 32nm.
The partners plan to pool their combined expertise to design, develop, and manufacture advanced technology through 2010. Those technologies may be used by the five partners, as well as other companies, to help address issues in areas like medicine, communications, transportation, and security.