Sun switches chip production to TSMC

Sun Microsystems has announced that it has chosen Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC) as its chip foundry partner, taking over from Texas Instruments (TI).

TSMC is the world's largest chip foundry, producing chips for graphics vendors such as nVidia, but up until now has not produced a CPU that will compete with designs from AMD and Intel.

The move will enable Sun to leverage TSMC's 45nm manufacturing process for its future UltraSPARC processers, in addition to releasing more heavily-featured and energy-efficient chips than its current designs, which are based on a 65nm process.

Intel already produces 45nm chips and AMD has announced plans to do so by the end of the year.

"TSMC gives us leading process technology coupled with the economics scale of high volume and lower cost," said Dr. David Yen, Sun's executive vice president of Microelectronics.

Sun's move is necessary as Texas Instruments has decelerated its plans to move to smaller manufacturing process, preferring to focus on the less cutting edge, but more profitable phone market. However, TI will continue to test and package the 45-nanometer processors for Sun.

A spokesperson for Sun told IT PRO that, "the partnership with TSMC and TI will allow us to continue develop revolutionary products like the UltraSPARC T2. Since 45 nanometer is a standard design for TSMC, we will benefit from the economies of scale it delivers to help keep costs down."

Sun would not give an exact timeframe for when its first 45nm CPU would appear, but confirmed that it was already working on 45nm products.

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