Image: © Alexander/Stock.adobe.com
The collaboration will allow chip designers to create chips that use Arm technology with Intel’s foundry process.
Intel has entered a multi-year agreement with UK chip designer Arm to bring new designs into its foundries.
The collaboration will combine mobile phone chips that use Arm’s technology with Intel’s foundry process, to give new options to customers.
This means chip designers will be able to create chips that use Arm cores and combine it with the benefits of Intel’s foundries.
Intel said the deal will focus on mobile system-on-chips, but has the potential to expand into designs for automotive, IoT, data centre, aerospace and government applications.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said that, until now, fabless customers – those that outsource chip fabrication – have had limited options in designing around “the most advanced mobile technology”.
“Intel’s collaboration with Arm will expand the market opportunity for IFS [Intel Foundry Services] and open up new options and approaches for any fabless company that wants to access best-in-class CPU IP and the power of an open system foundry with leading-edge process technology,” Gelsinger said.
As part of the “multigeneration agreement”, the two companies will work together on “design technology co-optimisation”, by optimising chip design and process technologies in a bid to reduce costs while improving power and performance.
Speaking on the collaboration, Arm CEO Rene Haas said the industry needs to “innovate to new levels” due to more complex demands for “compute and efficiency”.
“Arm’s collaboration with Intel enables IFS as a critical foundry partner for our customers as we deliver the next generation of world-changing products built on Arm,” Haas said.
Intel said the partnership is part of ‘IDM 2.0’, the company’s strategy that involves the combination of its internal factory network with third-party capacity as well as Intel foundry services.
The chip manufacturer first announced this strategy in March 2021, along with an announcement that Ireland would receive 1,600 high-skilled jobs as a result.
But supply chain issues, macroeconomic factors and the global chip crunch have taken their toll on the semiconductor giant in recent years. In January, Intel revealed it suffered a revenue loss in 2022 and gave a bleak outlook for 2023, which included a strategy of cost reductions and job cuts.
10 things you need to know direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of essential sci-tech news.
