TSMC to produce Intel Atom processor, graphics chips

Published: 29 Sep 2009 20:19:02 PST

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Sep. 30, 2009 (China Knowledge) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, the world's largest contract manufacturer of microchips by revenue, has consolidated its cooperation with the world's largest chip maker Intel Corp to produce Atom processors and Larrabee graphics chips for the latter, sources reported.

TSMC is to ramp capacity at Fab 14, located at Tainan Science Park, to 6,000 wafers a month to handle Atom production, and is buying back-end equipment for Fab 14.

It is expected that the monthly output will hit 35,000 wafers in 2010, according to sources. However, TSMC declined to disclose the cooperation details.

Analysts estimated that the average capacity utilization rate of TSMC will be around 80% in the fourth quarter of this year, while the 12-inch production facility will run at full capacity during the period.

TSMC posted nearly NT$29.83 billion of sa