GLOBALFOUNDRIES Partners with ARM for 28nm SoC Products

GLOBALFOUNDRIES is a company that is still young in the semiconductor industry, but the outfit has big plans to become one of the leading players in the industry and become a better competitor for TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company). On that note, ARM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES have announced today that they have agreed to enter a long-term strategic relationship to provide their mutual partners with support for taking advantage of GLOBALFOUNDRIES' HKMG semiconductor manufacturing capabilities.

“This relationship further advances our strong focus to partner with industry leaders in processor design to deliver manufacturing and technology excellence at the leading edge,” said Doug Grose, chief executive officer, GLOBALFOUNDRIES. “This highly complementary partnership leverages ARM’s architectural leadership along with GLOBALFOUNDRIES advanced technology to enable the deployment of 28nm SoC designs with exceptional performance for next-generation consumer devices.”

According to the details of the new partnership, the joint efforts will initially focus on upcoming SoC products that will be designed using the low-power and high-performance ARM Cortex A9 processor and GLOBALFOUNDRIES' 28nm HKMG process technology, which, according to the Sunnyvale, California-based semiconductor company, is optimized for high performance of processing with minimal leakage. The SoC enablement program, which is essentially at the base of the collaboration between the two, has been built around a suite of ARM Physical IP, Fabric IP and Processor IP.

“This announcement reflects our business value and strategy of providing best in class processor implementation by marrying our own processor and physical IP with world class manufacturing semiconductor technology,” said Warren East, chief executive officer, ARM. “This collaboration with GLOBALFOUNDRIES and their commitment to delivering leading edge technology makes them an ideal partner to accelerate the adoption of ARM processor based technology at 28nm.”

The deal between the two companies is especially beneficial for GLOBALFOUNDRIES, which is in the process of establishing a strong customer base, in order to compete with TSMC, which is currently the leading semiconductor company.