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  • Kevin G - Monday, April 22, 2019 - link

    Interesting. I wonder how this would impact that facility's 'Trusted Foundry' status as a place where chips used in secret government projects are manufactured. Think of processors used in missile guidance systems.
  • jeremyshaw - Monday, April 22, 2019 - link

    IIRC, ON Semi is US based and has acquired US DOD suppliers before.
  • Yojimbo - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    It's a reasonable question, but it took me less than a minute to go to ON's website to find:

    "Trusted Source

    With headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, and on-shore design and manufacturing centers, ON Semiconductor offers a secure, stable environment for the development of advanced semiconductor solutions for military and aerospace applications. ON Semiconductor has been granted Category 1A Trusted Foundry and Trusted Design accreditation for its on-shore fabrication facilities in Idaho and Oregon; and has also been granted ‘Broker’ accreditation with Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA). This enables ON Semiconductor to support the entire Trusted flow from initial ASIC design through wafer fabrication, utilizing other trusted suppliers for packaging and test. The combination of the three accreditations benefits military and defense customers by providing a fully integrated trusted manufacturing solution.

    In addition, ON Semiconductor maintains ITAR certification and QML flows required for military designs."

    So, I don't see a reason for revocation of the certificate. Perhaps interestingly, GlobalFoundries is parented by the Mubadala Investment Company, an Abu Dhabi state-owned holding company. I wonder how well governments can handle such security and secrecy concerns with the way multinational corporations operate these days. On the other hand, there was plenty of technology stolen 60+ years ago when there wasn't much economic exchange at all between the US and the USSR.
  • Gondalf - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    Yes you are right and likely they will diverge fron GloFo strategy developing or licensing finer processes for Military needs. After all ON semi is an intersting $ 6B/year thing in revenue, with the help of USA administration it can go below 14nm licensing from Samsung or developing in house with the help of ex IBM staff.
  • Samus - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    It helps that they are US based and manufacture in the USA. This is exactly why Intel is in such a great strategic position to be a military contractor, especially for modems and radio equipment, because Qualcomm, although based in what, San Diego (home of two of the largest military bases in the country - and home of the two largest military contractors) still manufactures the vast majority of their products overseas...
  • levizx - Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - link

    That's a laughable claim, considering to date, the ONLY modem (possibly) manufactured in the US is XMM 7560. All previous generations are manufactured by TSMC.
  • Yojimbo - Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - link

    Wait, let me get out my smartphone, I'm gonna call in an artillery barrage.
  • dromoxen - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    I think the bigger worry is China not USSR. China is state backed espionage, USSR is just sophisticated gangsters.
  • deepblue08 - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    Soviet Union? I thought you guys broke up?
  • FunBunny2 - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    "gangsters"

    yeah but run by the capo de tutti capo in the Kremlin.
  • Kevin G - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    Huh, I took a look at the foundry list and oddly both Global Foundries and IBM (though only as a broker) have this fab on the list. I would presume this is to aid with the IBM -> GF transition and I would expect both IBM and GF to move to similar broker status when ON Semiconductor takes over.

    Also amusingly there is a "NSA Microelectronics Solution Group" without any contact information, because of course there wouldn't be.
  • errorr - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    They have to have a wholly owned subsidiary with an independent Proxy-board that is composed of just US citizens. That is generally how most of the foreign-owned defence contractors work. Even major ones like BAE which are major contractors in our most trusted allies.
  • Sivar - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    ON Semi already has trusted foundries in the U.S., and I can see why they are "trusted" as IMO they go to great lengths to keep them secure.
    It would seem this facility just adds one more to their existing USA-based trusted facilities.
  • Smell This - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link


    I'm thinking this is what's left of the former IBM East Fishkill campus that Big Blue sold off for Big Bucks several years ago. Slick move by Mubadala Investment. They keep the cutting-edge IP, and transfer advanced processes to GloFo in Malta, Singapore and Dresden.
  • Yojimbo - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    As I don't believe GlobalFoundries are investing in building or expanding other fabs, this reflects a lower expected demand for their services. It may be a smart financial decision but I don't think it's some sort of win for them. They wouldn't be selling the foundry without replacing it if their business were growing.

    As far as the IP, I have no idea how that will work but it sounds like the fab will transfer over with its staff intact. So I would guess ON has access to the IP necessary to use the workers' expertise.
  • Smell This - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    Malta is adding 900+ jobs. You swung. You missed.
  • Yojimbo - Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - link

    I'm not talking about their jobs, I'm talking about their production capacity. They have space in Malta because they cancelled their advanced finFET plans.

    They laid off 900 employees last year, btw.
  • drunkenmaster - Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - link

    Cutting edge only stays cutting edge for years, maybe months. They bought this out from IBM in what 2015, IBM had a lot of IP but with where the industry is actually going both EUV and other things weren't ready back then and lots has been achieved and researched in the last 4 years, that information only has so much relevance, they've also paid a huge price for it and production wise they've gained nearly nothing from it. The singapore fabs are mostly 200nm and all much larger nodes, none remotely suitable for being upgraded for cutting edge nodes. Dresden is still making older nodes and was never ported to 14nm because those fabs while pretty damn good are still fairly old. The Malta fab is really the only truly modern day up to date fab you would go forwards with cutting edge designs and Global have stopped with 14nm. While 7nm is by many accounts, done and ready to go, it's the financial issue. For 7nm to pay off they have to invest billions in equipment, billions more in EUV, billions more in 5nm and then they need the volume of more than one fab to have any chance to make it pay off financially. They've basically drawn a line in the sand at 14nm and said we can't be profitable if we go forwards, so that IP is pretty worthless to them if they aren't moving forward with nodes. Stating they are sticking to 14nm means they basically stopped expanding and stopped investing, which means they were going to start to look to sell off all assets it can. Malta is likely to be sold eventually, the site has pre-approval for two more similar sized fabs on site that should be able to be built quicker than planning for 2 new fabs from scratch so I would bet they will sell Malta to whoever is interested in having 3 high output fabs in the states then sell off everything else they can and wind down the company.

    If they don't want to expand or move to new nodes, they basically put the for sale sign in the window.
  • peevee - Monday, April 29, 2019 - link

    "Global have stopped with 14nm"

    They have "12 nm". Close to "14 nm" technologically, but still denser as evidenced by new Zen cores made on it. Sorry, I have to use quotes as these are very, very fake "nm" (unlike 65nm node).

    I wonder what use 65nm has these days. Simple microcontrollers? What is the point if something like A32 on "12 nm" is going to cost about the same (in cents), as energy efficient and have immensely more compute power and programmability for networking etc?
  • FreckledTrout - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    Pretty sad GloFlo bought the brain trust from IBM and decides to go legacy process only. I think this is a direct result of that stupid decision. They might as well sell everything off they as they slowly wither over the next decade. As TSMC and Samsung move to newer process nodes they leave behind legacy nodes for cheap which except for the really old 90+ nm stuff they will likely eat up most of GloFlo's customers.
  • Khenglish - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    SMIC is an even bigger threat. They are currently developing 14nm. I can't see GF competing with a company that is owned by the Chinese government. They'll just flood the 14nm market at a loss to win contracts.

    I am entirely convinced that GF upper management wants the company to die a slow death with selloff after selloff. This is very sad as I have worked with GF engineers and they were highly capable and motivated, but they just kept getting hamstrung by dumbass upper management who did not understand how technological development works, making it impossible for them to be competitive.
  • peevee - Monday, April 29, 2019 - link

    "dumbass upper management who did not understand how technological development works"

    Business schools are a bane. That is their product.
  • FunBunny2 - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    I guess this means that Someone is going ahead with 450mm, at long last!! right?? :)(:
  • Khenglish - Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - link

    This fab is capable of 14nm, not just 40nm as the article states. This is the fab that IBM used for its server and business processors. After transfer to GF this fab still produced these chips for IBM, and GF was legally required to provide these chips for IBM until 2025.

    Has this deal between IBM and GF been renegotiated? Does On Semi now need to provide IBM with chips? Are the 14 nm lines being moved to another fab?

    The East Fishkill plant has a much different 14nm process from the standard GF 14 nm bulk process. The Malta plant cannot fab the East Fishkill 14nm node.
  • levizx - Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - link

    No it's not, 14HP is a hybrid IBM FEOL+Samsung BEOL and Tom Caulfield (SVP and GM of Fab 8 now CEO) quote that claimed 14HP “leverages the proven 14nm FinFET high-volume experience of our Fab 8 facility”.
    Furthermore, GloFo's website explicitly says Fab 10 is capable of 90-22nm, not 14nm, the technology has been transferred no doubt and Fab 8 was never upgraded to fab 14HP.

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