foundries

AMD talks more about chipmaking exit strategy

Advanced Micro Devices talked more about options for reducing its participation in a new manufacturing venture during its third-quarter earnings call on Thursday. The chipmaker also offered more details on conversion to 45-nanometer processors.

Earlier this month, AMD announced that it was splitting into two companies: one for designing chips (AMD), the other for manufacturing them (The Foundry Company). The latter company will be owned approximately 56 percent by Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC) and 44 percent by AMD.

During the conference call, AMD Chief Financial Officer Bob Rivet responded to a question from an analyst about an "exit … Read more

AMD deal triggers Intel license warning

Update on October 9 at 9:00 a.m. with additional comments from Intel and AMD.

Advanced Micro Device's new manufacturing venture may come with some old baggage.

After AMD announced on Tuesday that it would spin off its manufacturing assets to a new company partially owned by the Abu Dhabi government, Intel was quick to warn AMD about patent and cross-licensing concerns.

AMD will own part of the new manufacturing entity, for the time being to be called The Foundry Company, while Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC) will own the rest (55.6 percent) and have equal voting … Read more

Brocade swinging for the fences with switching

I often joked in the past that Fibre Channel switching leader Brocade Communications Systems followed an "old woman who swallowed a fly" acquisition strategy. To bolster its market position, Brocade grabbed Fibre Channel director vendor McData which purchased CNT which purchased Inrange. What was once a market with over a half dozen vendors is now centered on two: Brocade and Cisco Systems.

Even in this enviable position, Brocade faced two dilemmas: One, Fibre Channel itself will be challenged by 10, 40, and 100GbE moving forward. Ethernet, as you know, is the domain of Cisco, Extreme Networks, and Hewlett-Packard … Read more

Brocade to acquire Foundry Networks

Brocade announced it plans to acquire Foundry Networks, in a deal valued at approximately $3 billion.

Under the agreement, Brocade will pay a combination of $18.50 of cash plus 0.0907 shares of Brocade common stock in exchange for each share of Foundry common stock, for a total value of $19.25 per share, the two companies said in a joint press release issued Monday.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Foundry is a 12-year-old company that does enterprise and service provider switching and routing. Brocade's CEO praised it as "strong and well-respected" in their industry, during a … Read more

TSMC to be AMD's new best friend?

While AMD isn't giving away any information on its future fab plans, a major chip foundry is gearing up for a big new customer.

TSMC, the largest chip foundry in the world, is apparently planning to take on a new customer that wants to use the high-k dielectrics and metal gates introduced earlier this year by both Intel and IBM. Sumner Lemon of IDG News Service sat through a TSMC earnings call in which company executives mentioned a mysterious new customer would be coming on board in the second half of 2008.

There are not a lot of folks … Read more