US-based GlobalFoundries, the world’s fourth-largest semiconductor contract maker, has joined Google’s two-year-old mission to prove open-source silicon is viable for foundries.
Google’s idea is to provide open source projects for start-ups and academics, and lower-cost options for custom silicon fabrication with semiconductor foundries, with the goal of building a thriving ecosystem around open-source hardware.
“We cannot underestimate the significant step this new partnership represents in the foundry ecosystem market,” said Johan Euphrosine and Ethan Mahintorabi of Google’s Hardware Toolchains team.
A process design kit
Google and GlobalFoundries have released the process design kit for GF’s 180nm platform “GF180MCU” under the Apache 2.0 license. The open source GF180MCU PDK is available on GitHub as an alpha or “experimental” preview. The 180nm GF technology platform offers open-source silicon designers new capabilities for mass production, affordability, and more voltage options, Google said.
According to GF, applications using 180nm silicon are at a global capacity of over 16 million wafers per year and are expected to exceed 22 million wafers by 2026. Besides mobile, GF considers IoT and automotive to be high growth markets for foundries.
The partnership with GF extends Google’s work with foundry SkyWater Technology and manufacturing platform Efabless, which proves that the open source model works for the foundry ecosystem.
A partnership to stimulate innovation
The program sponsored six SkyWater “shuttles”, and of the 350 models the program received, 240 were made for free, according to Google. The GF 180MCU will also be manufactured on the Efabless platform.
“This open source PDK is the first result of our ongoing partnership with GF. Given the breadth and scope of GF’s technology and manufacturing expertise, we hope to do more together to foster access and innovation in the field of semiconductor development and manufacturing. -drivers,” Euphrosine and Mahintorabi said.
“The collaboration between GlobalFoundries and Google will help drive innovation for application and silicon engineers designing in these high-growth areas, and is an unequivocal affirmation of the viability of the open source model for the foundry ecosystem. “, they added.
GF is the fourth foundry in the world. It manufactured 6% of the world’s semiconductors in the first quarter of 2022 according to CounterPoint. TSMC, Taiwan’s largest foundry, produced 56% of the global supply, followed by Samsung Foundry (15%) and Taiwan-based UMC (7%).
Source: ZDNet.com