Intel will make chips for Achronix

SEMICONDUCTOR GIANT Intel has agreed to make chips for the startup firm Achronix Semiconductor, the Wall Street Journal has revealed.

Details about the deal are expected to be made public today. If it is all as the WSJ claims, it will be the first time that Intel gives another company access to its most advanced production processes.

Achronix makes application specific integrated circuits, which are chips that are electrically preprogrammed for particular tasks in computing, industrial or aerospace applications.

Intel spokesman Bill Kircos told the Journal that Achronix will account for significantly less than one per cent of Intel's production capacity on its advanced chip fabrication process.

But he said that Chipzilla has no problems about making chips for other companies besides Achronix. It is not clear then why it has never done so in the past.

Certainly the fields that Achronix is involved with are exactly the sorts of areas that Chipzilla would like to move into, so quite why it is helping a rival is anyone's guess. µ