UMC helps to "clarify" AMD-IBM muddle

MIXED MESSAGES FROM American company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) now seem to have been distilled by Taiwanese foundry United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) into a new formulation for the press that, however, only adds to the confusion. And makes everything as clear as the muddiest mud could be.

Taiwanese newspaper The Economic News, based in Taipei, reports today that it was UMC that terminated parts of the agreement it had with AMD over future technology, and after it appeared to have been caught somewhat on the hop itself by the IBM-Cheapzilla announcement.

As for Infineon - which was part of the deal between AMD and UMC - that situation remains unclear too.

The paper said UMC ended parts of the technology deal between it and AMD, but only after it found out a deal was struck with Big Blue, suggesting the lines of communication are possibly as strained as the silicon might be.

A UMC representative, quoted by the newspaper, said that its cooperation on chip technology with AMD will end when UMC has finished making 90 nanometer chips for the US company.

UMC appears to be in the dark over the future development of a 12-inch fab under the Singapore name of Au Private Limited - a $3 billion investment - and the most important part of the AMD deal.

The deal between AMD, Infineon and UMC over 65 and 45 nanometer technology also appears to have been galvanised by the announcement yesterday. How Infineon will react remains totally unclear, at press time.

Is anything clear in the muddy waters IBM and AMD appear to have stirred up? For example, AMD is apparently telling some people that IBM will act as a foundry for its future chips... µ