IBM, CHARTERED CREATE INDUSTRY'S FIRST CROSS-FOUNDRY
DESIGN ENABLEMENT PROGRAM
Manufacturing leaders to provide 90-nanometer multi-sourcing flexibility
and expanded ecosystem of third-party support
EAST FISHKILL, N.Y. and SINGAPORE, March 24, 2004 IBM and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (Nasdaq: CHRT and SGX-ST: Chartered) today announced plans to form the industry's first cross-foundry design enablement program to support leading-edge chip development with their jointly developed process platform, starting at the 90-nanometer (nm) technology node.
This effort, which builds on the existing joint technology and manufacturing agreement between the two companies, sets a new standard for foundry compatibility, design portability and flexible sourcing across multiple suppliers of leading-edge production capacity. The program is expected to reduce the risks and costs customers typically encounter when designing chips targeted for manufacturing with advanced nanometer-scale technologies.
IBM and Chartered have already begun collaborating to expand the ecosystem of design technology and service providers with offerings pre-qualified for the IBM-Chartered 90nm silicon process platform. The first key milestone is shared library support with the leading suppliers of baseline libraries announced today by Artisan Components, Inc. and Virage Logic Corporation (see separate press releases).
Building on Joint Process Platform
Chartered and IBM continue to execute and expand upon their
joint technology agreement focused on development of a common
process platform, starting at 90nm. This baseline logic process
establishes a new benchmark for 90nm process manufacturing
and features a matched-process strategy between IBM's and
Chartered's 300-millimeter (mm) fabs to provide foundry customers
with multi-sourcing flexibility. These efforts have been augmented
by a separate technology sourcing agreement between Chartered
and IBM for selected 90nm IBM silicon-on-insulator (SOI) products.
Today's announcement takes foundry compatibility and manufacturing flexibility for the IBM-Chartered common process platform to new levels. IBM and Chartered are combining their respective expertise into a single design enablement program starting at 90nm. Joint efforts will focus on providing an ecosystem of design enablement third-party support that encompasses the full spectrum of capabilities required for custom circuit design and system-on-chip development. In addition to common library support, the roadmap consists of initiatives spanning from electronic design automation (EDA) technology files to system-level intellectual property (IP), including joint qualification of reference design flows and third-party design services.
"We have the most advanced and production-worthy common 90nm process available today. The next step is to help our customers rapidly design and implement new products based on the technology," said Bernie Meyerson, vice president and chief technologist, IBM Systems and Technology Group. "This extension of our collaboration with Chartered can help rapidly strengthen and expand support for our common process platform. This joint approach offers huge time savings and resource leverage throughout the entire supply chain, and is a major win for chip designers."
"This effort really combines the best of our respective third-party support programs to deliver for the first time a common ecosystem and truly interoperable foundry model," said Mike Rekuc, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Chartered. "We believe it will significantly increase the pool of available IP and design solutions for
90nm and beyond, and make the IBM-Chartered process platform the smart choice for leading-edge chip production. The net effect for foundry customers is a much more flexible, reliable way to gain access to leading-edge manufacturing capacity from multiple sources."
About IBM
IBM is a recognized innovator in the semiconductor industry, having been first with advances like more power-efficient copper wiring in place of aluminum and faster SOI and silicon germanium transistors. These and other innovations have contributed to IBM's standing as the number one U.S. patent holder for 11 consecutive years. More information about IBM semiconductors can be found at: http://www.ibm.com/chips.
About Chartered
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, one of the world's top three dedicated semiconductor foundries, is forging a customized approach to outsourced semiconductor manufacturing by building lasting and collaborative partnerships with its customers. The Company provides flexible and cost-effective manufacturing solutions for customers, enabling the convergence of communications, computing and consumer markets. In
Singapore, Chartered operates five fabrication facilities and has a sixth fab, which will be developed as a 300mm facility.
A company with both global presence and perspective, Chartered is traded on both the Nasdaq Stock Market (Nasdaq: CHRT) and on the Singapore Exchange (SGX-ST: CHARTERED). Chartered's 3,300 employees are based at 11 locations around the world. Information about Chartered can be found at www.charteredsemi.com.
Chartered Safe Harbour Statement under the provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This news release contains forward-looking statements, as
defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking
statements, including without limitation, statements relating
to our joint manufacturing activities with IBM; our joint
development activities with IBM, Infineon and Samsung; the
"copy exact" strategy between IBM and Chartered's 300-millimeter
fabs; foundry compatibility and manufacturing flexibility
for the IBM-Chartered common process platform; provision of
an ecosystem of design enablement required for custom design
to system-on-chip and the increase of the pool of available
IP and design solutions for 90nm and beyond reflect our current
views with respect to future events, and are subject to certain
risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results
to differ materially from historical results or those anticipated.
Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially are: successful implementation of our joint development
and manufacturing efforts with IBM; successful implementation
of the IBM-Chartered library sharing arrangements with our
EDA partners; changes in market outlook and trends; the rate
of semiconductor market recovery; the successful implementation
of our partnership, technology and supply alliances; economic
conditions the United States as well as globally; customer
demands; the performance level in our fabrication facilities
and competition. Although we believe the expectations reflected
in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable
assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations
will be attained. In addition to the foregoing factors, a
description of certain other risks and uncertainties which
could cause actual results to differ materially can be found
in the section captioned "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report
on Form 20-F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements, which are based on the current view of management
on future events. We undertake no obligation to publicly update
or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result
of new information, future events or otherwise.
All trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
