Dont worry, this story doesn’t involve two brothers squabbling over property! AMD’s chip manufacturing branch will now happily spin-off as its own company.
The new company called Global Foundries, will now be handling all business related to chip manufacturing. While they had announced their decision as far back as October last year, the final name of the company, which was provisionally called ‘The Foundry Company’, was revealed as the company launched on 2nd March.
The company will manufacture chips for AMD and other customers, so AMD will now only be focused on Design. Starting with expanding their plant at Dresden, Germany; renaming the plant Fab 1, with Modules 1 focused on 45nm manufacturing process, and Module 2 focused on 32nm. In addition to that it has very optimistic plans for a new plant at Saratoga County, NY which will start constructing this year.
The Fab 2 plant, this is set to be functional by 2012, will be “the most technologically advanced in the world and the largest leading edge semiconductor foundry facility in the United States”. It will have state of the art facilities for 32nm and smaller features.
AMD’s decision is certainly surprising given the economic climate, however they claim that they are looking forward. This is a an investment they believe will secure their long-term future. So polish up your resumes becuause Global Foundries is hiring.
Go to the Global Foundries Website for more information.