The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Toshiba, Fujitsu, NEC want 32nm friendship

Can't keep up with Intel on their own

Free whitepaper – Selecting an Industry-Standard Metric for Data Center Efficiency

Toshiba said today it is considering a partnership with Fujitsu and NEC to develop and produce 32 nanometer chips, a way of competing with rival companies who've already formed similar pacts.

All three deny a report published yesterday by business newspaper Nikkei that they've already reached an agreement. They acknowledge, however, that negations are taking place.

According to the Associated Press, the companies plan to produce 32nm chips for high-power home electronics starting in 2010. Toshiba is expected to hold the largest non-majority share of the group.

If the deal goes through, the team will join rival chipmakers who have already partnered to offset the massive development and production costs required to shrink the minimum circuit feature to 32 billionths of a meter. According to VLSI Research, the cost of adopting the new process node can run as high as $4bn.

In May, IBM formed an alliance with Samsung, Chartered, Infineon and Freescale to pool resources for the task. Companies have been put under pressure to join wallets to compete with Intel, which expects to begin production of 32nm chips in a 2009 time-frame. ®

Picture of 32 nanometer circuit

(Left to right) 32nm circuit feature, 3m invisible unicorn

Free whitepaper – Cooling strategies for ultra-high density racks and blade servers

Don’t Miss

Data centre boxesAt what point do servers become HPC beasts?

Tech Panel El Reg barometer survey. Your input needed

Intel Xeon InsideThe state of the x86 server estate

Proper webcast Your peers are telling you

Large Hadron ColliderLarge Hadron Collider team flicks switch on Xeon grid

But hurry up with octo? We switch on tomorrow

ElephantOpen-sourcers promise cloud elephant won't trample your code

ApacheCon 09 Hadoop buffed for 2010 'completion'