Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor looks set to continue its foundry partnership with AMD into the 65nm era, if industry-insider claims that the chip maker has validated Chartered's 65nm production facility.

AMD signed Chartered to produce 90nm CPUs almost two years ago, in November 2004. In July this year, AMD said production at Chartered's Fab 7 300mm-wafer facility had reached the point where it was making "revenue shipments" from CPUs made by the foundry.

At the time, AMD said it would in due course get Chartered to produce 65nm processors. AMD has said it expects to ship 65nm products this year. Unofficial information coming out the company points to a December roll-out of Athlon 64 X2 processors fabbed at that node. It's anticipated AMD will ship the 65nm 'Brisbane'-based Athlon 64 X2 4000+, 4400+, 4800+ and 5000+, clocked at 2.1GHz, 2.3GHz, 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz, respectively.

Initial 65nm Athlons are likely to come from AMD itself, but if the validation claim, made by sources cited by DigiTimes, is correct, Chartered is well placed to help AMD get 90 per cent of its CPUs over to 65nm during 2007. ®