IBM Not Really Making Any Chips for AMD

There was a report, a few days ago, saying that IBM was making processors for Advanced Micro Devices, but the Sunnyvale, California-based chip company has now denied the rumor.

Though there is indeed a sort of collaboration with AMD, IBM has not made any chips for it and is not about to start doing so either.

Instead, it provided some consulting services to Globalfoundries, AMD's contract maker of semiconductors.

IBM, Globalfoundries, STMicroelectronics and Samsung Electronics jointly develop various processor technologies.

Thus, they often unify manufacturing processes and can provide each other assistance in case one runs into difficulty with building chips.

In other words, IBM only assisted Globalfoundries in trying to overcome the problems that have been impairing its chip yields.

"IBM has given some consulting support to GF, as far as I know they are not producing chips for us," a spokesperson for AMD reportedly said.

For those that want a quick reminder, AMD's CEO Rory Read arguably implied the IBM partnership during the Financial Analyst Day.

Alas, the media and most everyone else appears to have inferred something erroneous in the end.

Hopefully, IBM's aid to Globalfoundries helped. AMD first ran into supply problems back in 2011, when even the 32nm SOI process, on which Bulldozer and its kin are constructed, was affected.

On a related note, the Financial Analyst Day, and subsequent revelations, made room for other speculations as well, like an eventual partnership with ARM.

The company also said it expected a major maker of consumer electronics devices to use its chips starting this year, while “fully fused” APUs (accelerated processing units) would be on track for a 2014 release instead of 2015.

Whether or not Globalfoundries manages to finally get its act together, it will affect all these plans in some measure, since AMD appears to be determined to keep it as its sole supplier of CPUs and APUs.