VIA, TSMC united in 10-strong WCDMA alliance

A group of 10 Taiwanese electronics manufacturers has formed an alliance to share what are expected to be high costs, and considerable risk, in the development of system-on-chip device specifications for use in next-generation WCDMA handsets.

According to Taiwan's Commercial Times, motherboard giant VIA Technologies Inc, and the world's biggest independent foundry operator, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), will be part of the alliance, which is being lead-coordinated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and which will also feature participation from MediaTek Inc, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), BenQ Corp, Airoha Technology Corp, DBTel Inc, Inventec Appli@nce Corp and GVC Corp. Alliance members have chosen VIA to lead the alliance, the Commercial Times said.

The newspaper also noted that, despite reports that it will participate, MediaTek, which did not attend the alliance's inaugural meeting, has not confirmed that it will take part, and insisted that it will push ahead with its own wireless chip program regardless of whether or not it will join the alliance. The Commercial Times speculated that MediaTek's position suggests it has yet to bury the hatchet with VIA, with which it recently quarreled over the provenance of optical disk player technology.

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