Intel and TSMC reach Atom deal
Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC) today announced a collaboration involving Intel's Atom processor. Under the deal, Intel will port Atom CPU cores to TSMC's technology platform, a move intended to expand its market for Atom System-on-Chip (SoC) processors. In a statement, the company said:
With this joint effort, Intel intends to significantly broaden the market opportunities for its Intel Atom SoCs and accelerate deployment of the architecture through multiple SoC implementations. At the same time, TSMC extreach ends its technology platform to serve the Intel Architecture market segments.
The deal is part of Intel's long-term strategic efforts, the company said. Atom is Intel's smallest processor and, through SoC, aims to bring "the whole Internet and the benefits of computing to an emerging class of consumer-friendly devices" such as smartphones and netbooks. CEO Paul Otellini said:
We believe this effort will make it easier for customers with significant design expertise to take advantage of benefits of the Intel Architecture in a manner that allows them to customize the implementation precisely to their needs.