Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (or AppliedMicro), a designer of low power chips for communications solutions, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company have announced a collaboration enabling AppliedMicro’s Power architecture microprocessors to be manufactured on TSMC’s industry-leading technology platform first at 90nm then moving to 65nm and 40nm soon after. This will be the first time when TSMC produces microprocessors.

“The collaboration with TSMC marks an entirely new milestone for Power Architecture processing as it enables us to reach many low-cost application areas that were impractical for processors built in SOI technology,” said Robert Fanfelle, associate vice president of strategic marketing for AppliedMicro.

The agreement signals the first time that AppliedMicro’s embedded microprocessors are available beyond costly silicon-on-insulator (SOI) fabrication processes. The first product of this collaboration, the AppliedMicro APM 83290 processor, operates at 1.5GHz which represents the highest performance for a Power architecture processor manufactured on bulk 90nm CMOS technology, thus highlighting the benefits of technology partnership with TSMC.

The announcement kicks off a long-term strategic relationship between AppliedMicro and TSMC designed to widen the availability of Power architecture embedded processing across TSMC’s bulk technology platform. The move extends AppliedMicro’s energy efficient product emphasis by leveraging the benefits of TSMC’s high-performance, low-power processes.

AppliedMicro Power Architecture processor families are used in wireless access points, cellular base stations and multifunction printers.

Tags: TSMC, Semiconductor, Business, AppliedMicro, Power, 90nm, 65nm, 45nm