GLOBALFOUNDRIES launches global partner ecosystem

DAC 2010; SUNNYVALE, USA: At next week’s Design Automation Conference (DAC), GLOBALFOUNDRIES will unveil a new platform to spur innovation in semiconductor manufacturing and help deliver unparalleled service to chip designers.

Called GLOBALSOLUTIONS, the new ecosystem combines the company’s internal resources with a broad spectrum of partners to efficiently enable the fastest time-to-volume for foundry customers.

“As chip design grows in complexity and manufacturing partnerships become increasingly critical, foundry customer enablement needs to extend beyond process design kits and reference flows to include the full spectrum of the semiconductor value chain,” said Jim Kupec, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at GLOBALFOUNDRIES.

“To this end, GLOBALSOLUTIONS includes ecosystem partners in all aspects of design enablement, turnkey services, design for manufacturability, optical proximity correction and mask operations, and will further expand our capabilities in advanced assembly solutions. This will allow our customers to unlock their innovation potential and differentiate at all levels of the design process, from the silicon and SoC level all the way up to the full system.”

In addition to a GLOBALFOUNDRIES corporate booth (#574) at DAC, the company also will host a GLOBALSOLUTIONS booth (#275) that will feature ecosystem partners demonstrating their innovative solutions. The following members of the ecosystem will participate in the GLOBALSOLUTIONS booth:

EDA: Cadence Design Systems, Magma Design Automation, Mentor Graphics, Synopsys
IP: Analog Bits, ARM, ChipEstimate.com, Cosmic Circuits, Denali Software, eMemory Technology, Kilopass, Sidense, Synopsys, Virage Logic
SoC Services: eSilicon, Open-Silicon, Socle
Mask Services: AMTC, DNP, Toppan Photomasks
Assembly/Test: ASE Group, Amkor, STATS ChipPAC.

“GLOBALFOUNDRIES entered the foundry industry with a strong heritage of manufacturing and technology excellence, but they faced a daunting challenge in assembling the infrastructure necessary to help customers bring their designs to life,” said Jim Feldhan, president, Semico Research Corporation. “In just over a year, they have clearly built an impressive ecosystem that demonstrates the company’s progress and commitment in transforming from an integrated device manufacturer to a customer-centric foundry.”

While some foundries have deployed proprietary intellectual property, mask, and assembly operations to compete with ecosystem partners, GLOBALSOLUTIONS is designed to be truly open and collaborative, leveraging the best resources from around the world to deliver optimized solutions. Customers have the freedom to choose from a wide variety of options, as opposed to being locked into one particular approach or a foundry proprietary solution.

The GLOBALSOLUTIONS ecosystem partners are evaluated and certified to meet specific service and quality criteria, helping to reduce risk and increase the probability of first-time-right designs.

“GLOBALFOUNDRIES understands that time-to-volume is critical for large, high-growth foundry customers such as Atheros. They have worked closely with us to address our immediate and long-term requirements in design enablement, technology, and capacity, overcoming obstacles and bringing increased efficiency to the production process,” said Hing Chu, vice president of operations at Atheros Communications.

“GLOBALFOUNDRIES is a company that understands and listens to our needs and provides solutions that enable us to win.”