Intel has signed a manufacturing agreement with Panasonic Corp.’s LSI Business Division to build future system-on-chips (SoCs) using Intel’s 14nm manufacturing process.
Panasonic is the sixth company that Intel has publicly disclosed is working with its custom foundry business. Other publicly disclosed customers include programmable logic device makers Altera, Achronix Semiconductor and Tabula, as well as Netronome and Microsemi.
The deal will target next-generation SoCs from Panasonic for the audio visual-based equipment markets with enhanced performance, power and viewing experience for consumers, Intel said.
"Intel's 14nm tri-gate process technology is very important to develop the next- generation SoCs," said Yoshifumi Okamoto, director of Panasonic's SLSI business division, in a statement. "We will deliver highly improved performance and power advantages with next-generation SoCs by leveraging Intel's 14nm tri-gate process technology through our collaboration."
According to Intel, the microprocessor giant’s 14nm process technology with tri-gate transistors—also known as FinFETS—is geared for low-power applications and will enable Panasonic’s SoCs to achieve performance and functionality at a lower power level than was possible with planar transistors.
The deal with Panasonic comes four months after Intel expanded its foundry deal with Altera for multi-die devices that combine field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and SoCs with DRAM, SRAM, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), processors and analog chips in a single package. During that announcement, Intel said it would be using its 14nm Tri-Gate process technology to build the FPGAs for the communications, computing, broadcast and military sectors.
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