Shrugging aside widespread turmoil in the chipmaking space, Japanese rivals
Toshiba and Fujitsu on Wednesday announced a collaboration deal to design
and develop on system-on-chip (SoC) semiconductors.
While it’s not the first time the two companies are walking arm-in-arm, many
see it as a sign of consolidation in the battered chip group, which is
facing a Justice Department investigation into allegations of anti-competitive practices.
Under terms of the pact, Toshiba and Fujitsu plan to develop advanced
semiconductors for communications and other fields, and design and develop
platforms and new silicon technology.
The deal could see the development of SoC software at 100 nanometers and
finer, the super-tiny, high-capacity circuits that promise to improve a
chip’s processing speed.
The two companies are already part of an alliance between five Japanese
electronics behemoths involved in a Government-finance project to develop
the next-generation chip technologies. The companies teaming up on that
project also includes NEC Corp., Hitachi and Mitsubishi.
Under the latest partnership, Toshiba and Fujitsu plan to establish joint
working groups to deliberate the standardization of design and development
platforms and silicon technology, co-development of processor cores and
joint development of advanced LSIs for communications and other fields.
Fujitsu and Toshiba already have a history of holding hands on chipmaking
technology. Back in 1998, the two companies teamed up to develop 0.13
micron-level DRAM technologies. Under that deal, a joint project team of
approximately 100 researchers worked to build ultra high-density 0.13-micron
process technology, device technologies, product design and prototype
fabrication for 1-gigabit-generation DRAM devices.