The new spin-off from AMD that is the cumulation of their long running ‘Asset Lite’ initiative. The long term plan for AMD has been to separate their actual Fabs from the rest of AMD and have succeeded with the conception of Global Foundries. It will be based in Silicon Valley and will be headed by Doug Grose and chaired by Hector Ruiz, two names familiar to those who have followed AMDs saga over the past few years.
The Dresden Fab facilities will be getting new names, 36 and 30/38 will now be known as Modules 1 and 2 with Module on working on the older 45nm process and the newer Module 2 will head the 32nm development. In the USA, the first Fab will bear the name Fab 1 and a New York/Luther Park development will become Fab 2, if you can believe it.
These Fabs will not simply be making AMD parts; that would make the split essentially useless and not offer new revenue stream to AMD. Instead these Fabs will be open to all comers who are looking to have semiconductors developed or manufactured. They have even stated that they will accept contracts above and beyond regular CPU manufacturing, in fact they even have a quote from ARM on the new website. There is more info at The Inquirer if your curiosity hasn’t been satiated.
