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UMC First Pure-Play Foundry to Join The X Initiative
Availability of Production Fabrication Ensures Fabless Semiconductor Companies
Can Now Adopt X Architecture
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The X Initiative today announced
that world-leading semiconductor foundry UMC is the first pure-play foundry to
become a member of the semiconductor supply- chain consortium. UMC is now ready
to accept X Architecture designs for fabrication at the 180nm, 150nm and 130nm
process nodes. The availability of production fabrication for X Architecture
designs is a critical step toward broad commercial adoption of this new
chip-wiring architecture.
The X Architecture represents a new way of orienting a chip's microscopic
interconnecting wires using diagonal pathways, as well as the traditional
right-angle, or "Manhattan," configuration. By enabling designs with
significantly less wire and fewer vias (the connectors between wiring layers),
the X Architecture can provide significant, simultaneous improvements in chip
performance, power consumption and cost.
"UMC is focused on providing innovative solutions, and the X Architecture offers
significant benefits to our customers," said Patrick Lin, chief SoC architect at
UMC. "We are very pleased to take a leadership position as the first pure-play
foundry to join the X Initiative and are ready to accept the X Architecture
designs for production."
The pre-production design-to-silicon roadmap for the X Architecture laid out by
the X Initiative in 2002 was recently completed with the announcement of
functional silicon results (see "Toshiba Produces First Functional Silicon Using
the X Architecture," news release dated October 8, 2003). The focus of the X
Initiative's collaborative supply-chain preparation is now to enable broad
adoption of the X Architecture for production manufacturing at both current
(130nm, 90nm) and future (65nm, 45nm and below) manufacturing nodes. First
production chips are expected in 2004.
"Pure-play foundry support for X Architecture designs is a critical milestone
toward the goal of broad commercial adoption," noted Aki Fujimura, X Initiative
steering group member and CTO, new business incubation at Cadence Design
Systems, Inc. "By joining the X Initiative as its first member from the
pure-play foundry sector, UMC has assumed a leadership role in advancing the
commercial roadmap for the X Architecture."
About UMC
UMC (NYSE:UMC)(TSE:2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that
manufactures advanced process ICs for applications spanning every major sector
of the semiconductor industry. UMC delivers cutting-edge foundry technologies
that enable sophisticated system-on-chip (SOC) designs, including 90nm copper,
0.13um copper, embedded DRAM, and mixed signal/RFCMOS. UMC is also a leader in
300mm manufacturing; Fab 12A in Taiwan is currently in volume production for a
variety of customer products, while Singapore-based UMC is now in pilot
production. UMC employs over 8,500 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan,
Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at
http://www.umc.com/ .
About the X Architecture
The X Architecture, the first production-worthy approach to the pervasive use of
diagonal interconnect, reduces the total interconnect, or wiring, on a chip by
more than 20 percent and via-counts by more than 30 percent, resulting in
simultaneous improvements in chip performance, power and cost. For the past 20
years, chip design has been primarily based on the de facto industry standard
"Manhattan" architecture, named for its right-angle interconnects resembling a
city-street grid. The X Architecture rotates the primary direction of the
interconnect in the fourth and fifth metal layers by 45 degrees from a Manhattan
architecture. The new architecture maintains compatibility with existing cell
libraries, memory cells, compilers and IP cores by preserving the Manhattan
geometry of metal layers one through three.
About the X Initiative
The X Initiative, a group of leading companies from throughout the semiconductor
industry, is chartered with accelerating the availability and fabrication of the
X Architecture, a revolutionary interconnect architecture based on the pervasive
use of diagonal routing. The X Initiative's five-year mission is to provide an
independent source of education about the X Architecture, to facilitate support
and fabrication of the X Architecture through the semiconductor industry supply
chain, and to survey usage of the X Architecture to track its adoption.
Representing leaders spanning the entire design-to-silicon supply chain, X
Initiative members include: Applied Materials, Inc.; ARM; Artisan Components,
Inc.; ASML Netherlands B.V.; Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN); Dai Nippon
Printing (DNP); DuPont Photomasks, Inc.; Etec Systems, Inc., an Applied
Materials, Inc. company; GDA Technologies, Inc.; HPL Technologies, Inc.; Hoya
Corporation; IN2FAB Technology Ltd.; JEOL, Ltd.; KLA-Tencor Corporation; Leica
Microsystems AG; Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.; MicroArk Co. Ltd.;
Monterey Design Systems, Inc.; Nikon Corporation; NuFlare Technology Inc.; PDF
Solutions, Inc.; Photronics, Inc.; Prolific Inc.; RUBICAD Corporation; Sagantec;
Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.; Silicon Logic Engineering, Inc.; SiliconMap, LLC.;
Silicon Valley Research Inc.; STMicroelectronics; Sycon Design, Inc.; Tensilica,
Inc.; Toppan Printing Co.; Toshiba Corporation; Trecenti Technologies, Inc.;
UMC; Virage Logic, Inc.; Virtual Silicon Technology, Inc.; and Zygo Corporation.
Membership is open to all companies throughout the semiconductor supply chain.
Materials can be found at http://www.xinitiative.org/
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements (including, without limitation,
information regarding semiconductor design, production and performance
improvements resulting from the X Architecture, the compatibility of the X
Architecture with current technology, the future success of X Architecture
technology and the ability of certain of the X Initiative members to support the
X Architecture) that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the
results of X Initiative members and other events to differ materially from
managements' current expectations. Actual results and events may differ
materially due to a number of factors including, among others: future strategic
decisions made by the X Initiative members; failure of the X Architecture to
enable the production of designs that are feasible and competitive with current
designs or future alternatives; future strategic decisions made by X Initiative
members or others that inhibit the development of the X Architecture; demand for
advanced semiconductors that are developed using the X Architecture; cost
feasibility of the production of semiconductors designed using the X
Architecture; and the rapid pace of technological change in the semiconductor
industry. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and
uncertainties described in the most recent filings of the X Initiative members
with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The X Initiative members,
individually or collectively, assume no obligation to update the forward-looking
information contained in this release.
DATASOURCE: X Initiative
CONTACT: Sherrie Gutierrez of MCA, +1-650-968-8900,
for X Initiative; or Eileen Elam of KJ Communications, +1-650-917-1488,
, for UMC (in the U.S.), or In Taiwan - Alex Hinnawi of UMC,
+1-886-2-2700-6999, ext. 6958,
Web site: http://www.umc.com/
http://www.xinitiative.org/