TSMC helps R&D center in Shanghai

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the biggest maker of computer chips for other companies, is providing technical assistance on chipmaking and design to a government-run research center in Shanghai.

TSMC is providing the Shanghai Research Center for Integrated Circuit Design (上海集成電路設計研究中心) a complete library of core cells and input-output cells, which can help Chinese chip designers make 0.35-micron computer chips.

"This collaboration takes us in a giant step from making 0.6 micron chips to 0.35 micron designs," said Jiang Qifeng, vice manager of research at center.

TSMC has no manufacturing plants in China, although it says it will consider investment when Taiwan's government lifts its current bank on chipmakers expanding to China. By helping the research center, TSMC may be laying groundwork for its entry into the market by reaching out to semiconductor engineering firms and potential clients.

At a time when computer sales in the US and Europe are slumping, China's computer market is booming. About 8.9 million computers will be sold this year in the world's most populous nation, International Data Corp estimates, up a quarter from last year. That means more business for TSMC, which makes chips for computer makers such as Legend Holdings Ltd (聯想).

"It's a way for TSMC to get more customers and business, so they'll be glad to offer the specifications," he said.

The Shanghai Research Center, set up last year, is a government-run think tank that coordinates chip designs. It can bring together as many as 25 components from different designers and put them on the same chip, in what it calls the Multi-Project Wafer (MPW). It currently is capable of designing chips with circuitry spaced at 0.6 micron.

Indeed TSMC participated last week in two cross-strait MPW seminars held in Beijing and Shanghai respectively, along with several Taiwanese chip design companies such as Progate Group Corp (巨有科技), Global Unichip Corp (創意電子), Springsoft Inc (思源科技) and SOFA Design Technology Inc (源捷 科技).

By the second quarter of next year, the designs can be refined to a space of 0.35 micron based on TSMC's cell libraries. By the end of next year, that design can be further finessed to 0.25 micron, based on core cell specifications provided by Artisan Components Inc of Sunnyvale, California, Jiang said.

China wants to be able to design computer chips with circuitry as fine as 0.13 micron by 2005, Jiang said.