Official press release from Samsung and GlobalFoundries announced the creation of a virtual cluster production from the U.S. to South Korea, capable to process technology to produce a single 14-nm semiconductors using vertical FinFET-transistors. In plain language, this means that any third-party developer of chips with a finished project can refer to any of the partners factories in Korea or the United States. This is a fundamental issue, because even projects for the same technological standards differ greatly. In fact, each project must be prepared under the issue decisions on specific plants.
It is easy to understand that focusing on American factories Samsung and GlobalFoundries - Austin (S2) and Saratoga (Fab 8), as in the South Korean plant S1, is designed to reduce dependence on China and Taiwan (the latter is seen as China controlled territory).
Curiously, the press release makes no mention of IBM company , and in fact, until recently, donor technical processes for Samsung and GlobalFoundries was Big Blue. It is reported that the 14-nm process using FinFET developed by Samsung, while GlobalFoundries bought a license. Thus, by the way, we have further strengthened the idea that IBM still determined to get rid of the semiconductor business.
A press release from Samsung and GlobalFoundries assure that such a unified production model was not introduced only now, when it starts training projects based on 14-nm process. Samsung and GlobalFoundries began experimenting with a virtual factory in 2010 as part of the development of a 32-nm process technology. Then in 2011, they officially announced their readiness to work on projects within the 28-nm process technology. Now comes the fit process technology GlobalFoundries process technology under Samsung, which eliminates one link and promises fewer problems with practical implementation.
Importantly, the production of 14 nm semiconductor partners are going to end this year. Finally, Samsung and GlobalFoundries are talking about the real 14-nm production. TSMC Company, is known for the production of 16-nm FinFET semiconductors will be used on 20-nm process.