SAN FRANCISCO -- Programmable logic startup Tabula Incconfirmed Tuesday (February 21) that Intel Corp will manufacture the firm's22-nm 3PLD products using Intel's 3-D tri-gate transistors.
Tabula (Santa Clara, Calif.) becomes the second programmablelogic startup confirmed to be using Intel's Custom Foundry division for foundrywork. In October 2010, Achronix Semiconductor Corp announced that Intel wouldbuild its 22-nm FPGAs.
Intel dabbled in the foundry and ASIC markets for years. Butthe firm exited the ASIC business years ago and has never been considered amajor foundry player. Some analysts have speculated since the Achronix deal wasannounced that the world's No. 1 chip vendor wanted to increase its presence inthe foundry space, which is dominated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc(TSMC). Last year, the Reuters news service reported that Intel executivessaid, if given the opportunity, the company would happily manufacture highervolumes of chips for major companies such as, hypothetically, Apple Inc.?
Like Achronix, Tabula is a relatively small programmablelogic startup trying to compete in a market segment dominated by Xilinx Inc andAltera Corp. Tabula's manufacturing volume at 22 nm will be extremely low incomparison to Intel's own products. Because there is a premium placed onleading-edge process technology in high-end programmable logic, which bothTabula and Achronix offer, it is likely that the idea of working with Intel isespecially attractive to them.
"We felt early on as we looked at what Intel was doingon this technology node that there would be some synergy between our productand Intel's technology," said Dennis Segers, Tabula's CEO.
Rumors of a Tabula-Intel foundry relationship have beencirculating for nearly a year.
Intel announced last May that it tri-gate transistors, whichthe company had been developing for years, would form the basis of thecompany's 22-nm process technology. The technology was originally supposed tobe in volume production by late last year, but recent reports have indicatedthat Intel's 22-nm processors, codenamed Ivy Bridge, won't be in volumeproduction until June.
Tabula, which operated in semi-stealth mode for years beforeMarch 2010, when the company publicly detailed its Spactime three-dimensionalprogrammable logic architecture, which the company says will enable a new classof devices, 3PLDs, that offer the capability of an ASIC, ease of use of an FPGAand price points suitable for volume production.
According to Tabula, the Spacetime programmable fabricdelivers a balanced architecture with shorter interconnects than traditionalFPGAs and the ability to clock the entire fabric-logic, DSP, memory, andinterconnect -- at the same frequency. To do that, the Spacetime architectureuses time as a third dimension to reduce the number of components needed toimplement a function and can deliver smaller, higher performance chips,according to the company.
Tabula uses TSMC to build its 40-nm ABAX products, which arecurrently in volume production and can operated at clock sppeds of 1.6 GHz.Seggers said the relationship with TSMC would continue on the 40-nm products."We continue to work with TSMC on that product and we have an ongoingrelationship with TSMC," Seggers said. "We have great respect forTSMC. They are the best in the world at what they do."
Seggers declined to reveal when Tabula's next-generation22-nm devices would be in volume production. Details about the agreement withIntel were also not disclosed.
This story was originally posted by EETimes.
