Analysis: What's next for UMC?
Mark LaPedus, EE Times
(05/23/2010 8:45 PM EDT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- At a low-key event in Taiwan this week, silicon foundry vendor United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) celebrated its accomplishments during its 30th anniversary.
But will 2010 be UMC’s last party? Despite the current upturn and renewed growth at UMC, many wonder if the foundry vendor will survive in the long run, as the company has fallen behind the technology curve, seen a key customer in Xilinx Inc. defect to its rival and been the subject of takeover rumors.
Now, there is speculation that UMC may join IBM Corp.’s fab club or form a new R&D alliance with Texas Instruments Inc., in an effort to play catch-up--or even survive--in the foundry market. Others believe that GlobalFoundries Inc. or its big investor--Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC)--may take a stake in UMC in return for fab capacity.
![]() |
E-mail This Article | ![]() |
![]() |
Printer-Friendly Page |
Related News
Breaking News
- intoPIX Powers Ikegami's New IPX-100 with JPEG XS for Seamless & Low-Latency IP Production
- Tower Semiconductor and Alcyon Photonics Announce Collaboration to Accelerate Integrated Photonics Innovation
- Qualcomm initiates global anti-trust complaint about Arm
- EnSilica Agrees $18m 7 Year Design and Supply ASIC Contract
- SiliconIntervention Announces Availability of Silicon Based Fractal-D Audio Amplifier Evaluation Board
Most Popular
- Qualcomm initiates global anti-trust complaint about Arm
- Siemens acquires Altair to create most complete AI-powered portfolio of industrial software
- Alphawave Semi Reveals Suite of Optoelectronics Silicon Products addressing Hyperscaler Datacenter and AI Interconnect Market
- EnSilica Agrees $18m 7 Year Design and Supply ASIC Contract
- Rapidus Announces Strategic Partnership with Quest Global to Enable Advanced 2nm Solutions for the AI Chip Era