Xilinx to use TSMC as a foundry supplier

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Xilinx Incorporated, based in California, the United States, has announced that it will use Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), the leading foundry, as one of the 2 foundry suppliers for its 28-nm FPGAs.

In a statement, Xilinx said it was using TSMC as well as the foundry division of Samsung Electronics Company Limited to produce 28-nm parts, which are expected to start sampling by the end of 2010.

For long, Xilinx has been using a 2-foundry strategy at each process node. Samsung had first joined the foundry supplier roster of Xilinx at the 40-nm node, replacing Toshiba. 

Suresh Menon, vice-president (product development – programmable platforms development group) of Xilinx said in the statement that the company evaluates the process technology of foundries at every process to determine which suppliers to use.

He explained that Xilinx is focusing on power management in its 28-nm products and that static power is a very considerable portion of the total power dissipation of a chip at 28-nm. The choice of process technology at 28-nm is critical to achieving maximum power efficiency, Suresh Menon added. 

He said TSMC and Samsung have offered Xilinx the best process technology options for low-power, high-performance process technology at 28-nm. Xilinx has been working with both TSMC and Samsung on 28-nm development for over 2 years.