Comments on: When the Chips are Down, Ditch Those Assets

By: Tightwad Technica » New IBM fab service could foster open source chips

Tightwad Technica » New IBM fab service could foster open source chips — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:40:01 +0000

[...] it becomes ever more expensive for semiconductor companies to build manufacturing plants to make their own chips, there are plenty of foundry services out there. However, IBM has combined [...]

By: IBM’s New Foundry Service Takes on Intel - GigaOM

IBM’s New Foundry Service Takes on Intel - GigaOM — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:01:17 +0000

[...] it becomes ever more expensive for semiconductor companies to build manufacturing plants to make their own chips, there are plenty of foundry services out there. However, IBM has combined [...]

By: Tony

Tony — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:25:52 +0000

Actually, for Intel, the value traditionally has been in the marketing and manufacturing (Intel typically having the most advanced process in mass production first has given them a speed and price advantage), not design.

And for analog, which is an increasingly large part of the semi business, it’s still very advantageous to have your own fabs – but they can be 200mm fabs. Nobody is running analog parts on 300mm wafers, and it’s very possible nobody ever will. You should spend some time investigating Maxim Integrated Products(which even during the darkest days of the dot-bomb crash had 25% margins), Linear Technology, TI’s analog business, etc — it’s interesting stuff.

And, yes, I think companies such as ST and NXP will (and should) start concentrating on a systems-design approach.

The fabless model also has its risks — see here http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=210601146 for example