MALTA - Don't get Tom Caulfield started.
The CEO of GlobalFoundries was at Fab 8, the company's computer chip factory in Malta that he used to run as general manager, two weeks ago to tout the $25 billion American Foundries Act that is making its way through Congress with the help of U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer.
The bill would help support domestic chip production at facilities like Fab 8 to help the U.S. semiconductor industry fend off the Chinese government's attempts to monopolize the industry worldwide. Some of the funding could go toward an expansion of Fab 8 that could create hundreds of new jobs.
But Caulfield sees plenty of upside already at Fab 8, which he says has plenty of room to expand its operations already with 40 percent of its factory floor available to increase production.
And while Fab 8 is GlobalFoundries' most modern and technically advanced factory, Caulfield made the stunning decision nearly two years ago to abandon leading-edge chips made using 7 nanometer architecture — the types of advanced chips used as the "brains" of the current iPhone — in favor of chips using less advanced 14 nanometer architecture.
Those 14-nanometer chips have become a workhorse product for GlobalFoundries and are the basis for GlobalFoundries' current strategy of providing its customers (chip makers that don't own their own factories) with feature-heavy processors that power everything from Apple Pay financial transactions to Wi-Fi routers, cell phone towers, data centers and more.
"The semiconductor chips we manufacture are at the heart of everything, from our phones and computers to medical devices in our hospitals and the systems that defend our country," Caulfield said during Schumer's visit to Fab 8 (his third time there) on July 31.
Two years ago it appeared that Caulfield was taking a huge gamble when he decided to stop working on 7 nanometer production that rivals like Taiwan Semiconductor and Samsung jumped headfirst into. The transistors in 7 nanometer chips are roughly half the size of 14 nanometer transistors, allowing chip makers to double the number of transistors on a single chip, making them faster and more powerful than 14 nanometer chips.
But 7 nanometer transistors are so small that they require a special type of ultra-violet light machine to etch their designs that costs hundreds of millions of dollars each — a huge cost for a relative start-up like GlobalFoundries, which was founded 11 years ago and now employs 3,000 people at its plant in Malta.
Caulfield didn't see great gains in cost efficiency or performance in 7 nanometer chips over 14 nanometer chips, which have a much wider market that GlobalFoundries is now tapping into with a vengeance without the massive research and development costs needed to make 7 nanometer chips.
"The industry has painted itself in a box where we think that smaller transistors are the only innovation and where technology leadership resides," Caulfield said during Schumer's visit. "And that's the furthest thing from the truth."
While companies like Apple and other device makers want to say that they have the fastest chips being used as central processors, those same devices also need chips that run critical features that enhance them and make a phone much more than a phone, Caulfield said.
"It is a necessary need for the industry to have single-digit nanometer, the smallest transistors," Caulfield added. "But it is equally important to have feature-rich semiconductor technologies — connectivity, embedded memory, things that allow devices like your phone to have critical features."
The difference is like comparing a high-end sports car with a versatile pick-up truck or SUV that can get a lot of jobs done. In fact, chips made by GlobalFoundries are being used in critical areas of national importance, such as the fight against the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19.
"GlobalFoundries' technology powers leading-edge mobile diagnostic devices, which are being used by healthcare professionals to monitor patients for pneumonia and lung-related symptoms associated with COVID-19," Caulfield said in a statement to the Times Union. "These devices are being used by doctors and nurses to more effectively treat patients afflicted by the SARS-CoV-2 virus."
And as people move to work at home amid the pandemic, GlobalFoundries' 14 nanometer chips are making it happen.
"Our technology is helping to make telework and remote learning possible," Caulfield said. "More than 85 percent of today’s smartphones feature GlobalFoundries' RF (radio frequency) technology, which also powers other wireless devices such as laptop computers and smart speakers, as well as wi-fi routers, cell towers, and countless other applications."
Caulfield said these "feature-rich" yet less expensive chips make up 75 percent of the so-called foundry market, and for now that is the space where GlobalFoundries will operate. (Foundries. like GlobalFoundries, make chips for other companies that don't have their own factories).
"If we get to enough scale, maybe someday we can revisit participating in the other 25 percent of the foundry market that we decided was not a good place for us to create value for our customers," Caulfield said during Schumer's visit.
lrulison@timesunion.com
August 09, 2020 at 05:36AM
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GlobalFoundries has found niche after abandoning leading edge chips - Times Union
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