Now, AMD to go fab-lite?

EL SEGUNDO, USA & BANGALORE, INDIA: Yet another speculation doing the rounds of the global semiconductor industry is the possibility of AMD going the fab-lite route!

As Cadence's Michael J. Fister remarked at the CDNLive event in India last year: "A related trend is that the amount of chip production outsourced to foundries continues to grow, with many Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDMs) moving to a "fab-lite" strategy for advanced nodes. This is happening as design is becoming a greater product differentiation than production."

Even Nam Hyung Kim, Director & Chief Analyst, iSuppli Corp., will not speculate whether AMB would actually break up into into two entities: design and manufacturing, and also prefers to wait and watch.

How does fab-lite actually benefit? He comments: "Fab-lite has not been working well in the memory industry, which requires very tight control. It works, IF two companies (an IDM and a foundry) work very closely. For example, the industry leader, Samsung, produces all of the memory alone without any foundry relationship."

We are all waiting to see what eventually happens with AMD, although, going fab-lite is a path others have already taken before!

Keep watching this space!