Perhaps, Globalfoundries is about to obtain a yet another high-profile customer, whose chip designs power the vast majority of mobile phones sold worldwide.

ARM, a leading developer of low-power microprocessor technologies, this week confirmed that it was interested in making its chips at Globalfoundries, a joint venture between Advanced Micro Devices and Advanced Technology Investment Company. The designer hopes to expand beyond its traditional mobile phone market and needs leading edge manufacturing to ensure that its complex designs will be economically and technically feasible to manufacture.

ARM plans to add manufacturing partners as it expands its businesses beyond mobile phones, Kevin Smith, ARM’s vice president of marketing, told this week Bloomberg news-agency. The executive indicated that at present ARM is working with Freescale Semiconductor, Sharp Corp. and Pegatron Technology Corp on smartbooks, low-cost netbooks utilizing ARM designs.

Since ARM is already working with Globalfoundries’ process technology partner IBM, there should not be a lot of problems for the company to develop chips in accordance with Globalfoundries’ design rules.

Tags: Globalfoundries, Semiconductor, Business