Qualcomm sampling 65 nanometre phone chipset

PHONE GIANT Qualcomm is using number one Taiwanese foundry TSMC to sample 65 nanometre telephone chips.

TSMC said that the wireless devices Qualcomm is fashioning are two months ahead of schedule. Qualcomm reckons it's one of the first companies to push 65 nanometre into volume production.

The Qualcomm MSM6800 chipset is ready for sampling now, using TSMC's Cyber Shuttle 65 nano process technology.

TSMC said that five "major customers" and "multiple" third party IP designs have already moved onto the process. The firm uses Nexsys SM - a brand name for a semiconductor process which uses low-k dielectrics and copper interconnects. This is a nine layer metal process with core voltages of one or 1.2 volts and IO voltages of 1.8 volts, 2.5 volts, or 3.3 volts.

The tech includes mixed signal and radio frequency stuff to support both analogue and wireless design, and embedded high density memory. µ