Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world's top contract chipmaker, yesterday said Qualcomm Inc was sampling mobile phone chips made on its most advanced technology ahead of schedule.
Qualcomm, the world's second-largest maker of chips used in mobile phones, is testing chips manufactured by TSMC's latest 65-nanometer-process technology two months earlier than originally planned, the chipmaker said in a statement.
The news that TSMC's chips are already being tested by California-based Qualcomm was welcomed by analysts such as Tiffany Chen (陳瑋倫) with KGI Securities (中信證券), who said the action will help boost the company's competitiveness.
"It will make TSMC one of the first chipmakers to get an early start on commercial production with the advanced 65-nanometer-process technology," Chen said.
The technology enables chipmakers to get more chips from a single silicon wafer by shrinking circuitry width.
"This is positive for TSMC, showing that the company is smoothly transiting to the next-generation technology and is narrowing the technological gap with integrated design manufacturers such as Intel Corp," Chen said.
The extension in partnership with Qualcomm would gradually boost TSMC's revenues, possibly beginning in the fourth quarter of the year, he said.
TSMC is expected to post flat sales at US$2.39 billion for the conventionally slow season in the first quarter, Merrill Lynch has said.
The chipmaker, which is due to post its sales figures for last month today, might say sales increased 13 percent to US$840 million from February after deducting NT$50.19 billion (US$1.55 billion) sales in the first two months, according to Merrill Lynch's forecast.
In a separate statement yesterday, TSMC said that Carly Fiorina, former chairwoman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co, has agreed to join its board of directors as an independent member.
Fiorina would be the fourth independent member on the nine-seat board.
TSMC will strengthen corporate governance by expanding the number of independent board members to more than half of the board, the statement said.
"We believe Ms Fiorina has a wealth of experience in leading world-class companies. She will bring unique value to the board," TSMC chairman Morris Chang (
TSMC's other independent board members are former British Telecom chief executive Peter Bonfield, Lester Thurow, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and former Acer Group chairman Stan Shih (施振榮), the statement said.
TSMC shareholders are to elect the board at this year's annual general meeting on May 16.
TSMC shares climbed 2.17 percent to NT$65.9 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, compared with the 1.43 percent gain reported on the TAIEX.
Smaller rival United Microelectronics Corp (
RSS