IBM, Chartered Extend Development Agreement to 45nm

Online staff -- Electronic News, 1/24/2005

IBM and Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing today announced they have signed an extension to their existing technology agreement, formally expanding their joint development efforts to 45nm bulk CMOS process technology.

The 45nm alliance builds on the multi-year agreement that the two companies signed in November 2002 to jointly develop and align on 90nm and 65nm logic processes at 300mm.  Today's news was not unexpected as the two companies have both said they intend to stay on the cutting edge and had announced plans for 45nm.

"Under the original agreement, IBM and Chartered have demonstrated the benefits that customers can derive from the technology and the collaborative business model. We are now poised to scale the relationship to the cutting edge of technology development," said Shi-Chung Sun, senior VP of technology development at Chartered, in a statement. 

As with the previous nodes, the development activities will be conducted at the IBM East Fishkill, N.Y., fab. According to IBM, each company will have the ability to implement the jointly developed and copy-exact processes in its own manufacturing facilities.

The move extends the duo's development relationship through June 2008. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.