Once companies engaged in the semiconductor industry, tried to personally develop and manufacture chips. This business model, known as IDM (Integrated Device Manufacturer), can accelerate the process of commercialization of new products through tight integration units that design and manufacture. With the development of the industry cost of maintaining their own factory increased significantly, which is why many manufacturers have been forced to get rid of the heavy burden of factories and to use contractors who are willing to take orders for the release of chips of any complexity.
Rowan Chen , senior vice president of global operations for Qualcomm, at the event SEMICON Taiwan 2013 Executive Summit noted that today copes with the content of their own factories can only Intel. Some success in this field was also able to achieve Samsung, but the South Korean giant is justified only the production of memory.
At the same time, close cooperation between the developer and the contractor can not achieve less efficient operation than IDM models . An example of such cooperation, Chen described the relations Qualcomm and TSMC. In general, Chen believes that the division of labor will create better solutions and will benefit all participants in the mutual relations.