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Technology Stocks : ADI: The SHARCs are circling! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Roader who wrote (755)	1/8/1998 8:17:00 PM
From: Richard H.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2882

I think TSMC is a partner of ADI. See the Camas, Wash. facility mentioned at the end of the article. TSMC in production with 0.25-micron wafers HSINCHU, Taiwan -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. here today said began shipping production 0.25-micron wafers for a high-performance logic product at the end of 1997. The IC was the first in an anticipated 10 products scheduled for 0.25-micron production in the first quarter of 1998, according to TSMC. TSMC also claimed it was the first foundry to commercialize 0.25-micron process technology, which economically accommodates 300-MHz system-on-chip products with up to 10 million transistors. TSMC is ramping this technology in three fabs, expecting to reach a capacity of 15,000 8-inch wafers per month in 1998 and much more in 1999. "In parallel, we are developing process options for mixed-signal, high-density embedded SRAM and embedded 1-T DRAM functions," said Ron Norris, president of TSMC USA, based in San Jose. These process variations can be expected in the second quarter and second half of the year, he said; they will be 100% design compatible with the baseline logic process to allow full design reuse. TSMC's 0.25-micron logic process offers one poly layer, five metal layers, and borderless contact design rules, resulting in almost double the density of 0.35-micron technology. Dual gate oxides provide for 2.5- or 3.3-volt operating voltages with 5-V tolerance. To facilitate design reuse, the 0.25-micron process allows shrinks from 0.5-micron and 0.35-micron processes and has a built in shrink path to the 0.18-micron technology that will be introduced in 1999. To accelerate customers' time-to-market, TSMC is providing baseline design intellectual property with silicon-verified, process-optimized libraries of core cells and memories. These libraries will be expanded, in partnership with select IP vendors, to include specialized functions. WaferTech, the company's U.S. joint venture in Camas, Wash., will begin ramping to production in July 1998. In July 1997, TSMC broke ground on Fab 6, the first of 5 new fabs in Taiwan. Fab 6 will start production in 1999 and build to a capacity of 60,000 8-inch wafers per month. Subsequent fabs in Taiwan will be 12-inch (300-mm) lines, the company said. TSMC's 0.18-micron production schedule calls for work with several undisclosed partners for earliest production beginning in the second quarter of 1999.