TSMC declines comment on order report

The world's leading supplier of made-to-order chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), may start making chips that use 65-nanometer technology for Freescale Semiconductor Inc next year, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing an official at Freescale.

TSMC has already helped make chips that use 90-nanometer technology for the US company, the Taipei-based newspaper said, citing Sumit Sadana, a senior vice president at Freescale's strategy division. There was no information on the order amount or shipment date, according to the report.

Austin, Texas-based Freescale is the third-biggest US chipmaker.

TSMC declined to comment on the report.

"Our policy is not to comment on such reports about our clients," Tzeng Jin-haw (曾晉皓), a spokesman for TSMC, said yesterday.

TSMC will start shipping 65-nanometer technology chips in the first quarter next year, company president Rick Tsai (蔡力行) said on May 26.

The technology enables the company to shrink spaces between transistors on chips to 65 nanometer from its previous smallest of 90 nanometer, allowing it pack more than 750 billion transistors on to a single 12-inch wafer, he said.

The 90-nanometer technology accounted for 4 percent of the company's total revenue in the first quarter and will make up more than 10 percent of sales in the second half, Tsai said.