Nvidia Joins SOI Industry Consortium

The SOI Industry Consortium announced that Nvidia, the world's leading manufacturer and supplier of graphics processing units, joined the corporation. Nvidia's entrance in the organization may let us believe that the semiconductor developer has in mind a possible usage of the silicon-on-insulator technology on its future chips.

"Nvidia is pleased to join the SOI consortium. We are looking forward in participating on the advancement of such an innovative technology and its applications to future products," said John Chen, vice president of technology and foundry operations at Nvidia.

X-bit Labs states that Nvidia is a developer that does not have its own fabs. Still, the company shows a real interest in the development of chip manufacturing technologies and design tools. The main idea behind this may be the company's strive to find new technologies capable of allowing it to maintain its position as a leading developer of high-end graphics processors and other chips as well.

With the newly joined Nvidia, the number of companies forming the SOI Industry Consortium rises to 23. The organization was founded in October 2007 and its purpose is the acceleration of innovation in the silicon-on-insulator industry area. The Consortium also aims at pushing this technology forward into broad markets through the promotion of the benefits brought by silicon-on-insulator, while also trying to convince manufacturers to adopt it on their future chips.

Other members of the SOI Industry Consortium include: AMD, Applied Materials, ARM, Cadence Design Systems, CEA-Léti, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Freescale Semiconductor, IBM, Innovative Silicon, KLA-Tencor, Lam Research, Magma Design, Samsung, Semico, Soitec, SEH Europe, STMicroelectronics, Synopsys, TSMC, Tyndall Institute, UCL and UMC.

According to the organization, any company that has increased interest in silicon-on-insulator is welcome to join the SOI Industry Consortium.