TSMC, ARM Team Up to Build Advanced, Energy-efficient Processors

TSMC and ARM (News - Alert) have announced an agreement to build new fabless 64-bit ARM chips based on ARMv8 architecture.

The agreement between the two companies will extend the manufacturing of 64-bit ARM processors beyond 20 nanometer technology. The ARM architecture powers many mobile devices, including Apple's (News - Alert) iPhone and iPad.

“By working closely with TSMC, we are able to leverage TSMC's ability to quickly ramp volume production of highly integrated SoCs in advanced silicon process technology," Simon Segars, executive vice president and general manager, Processor (News - Alert) and Physical IP Divisions at ARM, said. "The ongoing deep collaboration with TSMC provides customers earlier access to FinFET technology to bring high-performance, power-efficient products to market."

“This collaboration brings two industry leaders together earlier than ever before to optimize our FinFET process with ARM's 64-bit processors and physical IP," said Cliff Hou, vice president, TSMC Research & Development. "We can successfully achieve targets for high speed, low voltage and low leakage, thereby satisfying the requirements of our mutual customers and meeting their time-to-market goals.”

The two companies will work together, sharing feedback and technical information. This will allow the Cambridge, England-based ARM to increase the power, performance and area (PPA) of its chips. In other words, it will be able to pack more power into a small space on the chip. The copany will also be able to strengthen its intellectual property.

At the same time, the Hsinchu, Taiwan-based TSMC will improve its FinFET technology. This will allow the two companies to release more powerful and more energy-efficient chips, which is especially important for the mobile devices in which ARM is widely used. The improvements will also improve the architecture's standing in the enterprise computing world, which appreciates more processing power and less energy usage as much as the mobile market does.

The deal shows the increasing importance of fabless manufacturing where the actual chip manufacturing is done by another company instead of the traditional vertical integration in the microprocessor manufacturing market.

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