AMD likely to outsource wafer starts

TAIPEI, TAIWAN: AMD has lined up strategies to outsource wafer starts for its Fusion CPUs with integrated graphics to TSMC by making use of its bulk 40nm process technology, and associated backend services to Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL).

Globalfoundries, AMD's spun-off fabrication arm, has in addition secured orders for the Fusion chips. A latest TechEye report quoted a senior VP of Globalfoundries indicating that the foundry is in manufacturing process for the AMD Fusion using 32nm SOI technology.

AMD at its latest investor’s conference divulged that its Fusion laptop chips, which merge a CPU and GPU on the same piece of silicon, have been sampled, with OEM system availability in the first half of the year 2011.