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TSMC wants to ally with designers, not buy them

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it it has no plans to acquire a local chip-design house, according to a company official.

Instead, the world's largest supplier of made-to-order chips said it would form alliances with chip-design companies to improve services, said TSMC Spokesman Tzeng Jinnhaw (曾晉皓).

A Chinese-language newspaper yesterday reported that TSMC is planning to acquire Hsinchu-based integrated-circuit design house Global UniChip Corp (創意電子) in August, adding that the chipmaker will buy an 80 percent stake in Global UniChip with NT$15 per share.

Tzeng denied the story, saying the company has no plan to buy, acquire or merge specific design houses. But he stressed that TSMC Chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) had said he wouldn't rule out the possibility of forging a more solid relationship with its 27 chip-design partners from around the globe.

Currently, TSMC has collaborated with seven chip-design houses in Taiwan including Global UniChip, Goyatek Technology Inc (科雅科技) and Innochip Technology Inc (世紀創新), four companies in Japan and another 16 in Europe and the US, the paper said.

In a bid to adjust its chip-design resources and especially to enhance its capability in system-on-chip (SOC) production in the future, TSMC wanted to deepen cooperation with its design partners, the paper said.

In response, Tzeng said a good bridge or linkage is needed to ensure customers get better design services, especially with the division of labor between design and manufacturing companies. He declined to elaborate.

Unlike UMC (聯電), TSMC doesn't have subsidiaries in the business. It has an internal design unit.
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