Mannerisms

NXP's rationale for the move is that TSMC can provide processes better than 90nm so why go to all the trouble of developing your own?

Funny how quickly attitudes can change. When NXP was part of Philips, when Pasquale Pistorio ran STMicroelectronics, before Freescale was bought by private equity funds, it was held as axiomatic by all three companies that it was an important competitive advantage to have access to the most advanced digital CMOS processes, and that the only way to achieve that was by developing them yourself

That was the rationale for getting the EU to pour hundreds of millions of Euros into Crolles over the years. Now, all three companies have pulled out of doing basic advanced digital CMOS research at Crolles.

Now, it seems, it doesn't matter whether you develop basic advanced CMOS process technology or not. Instead you can go to a public foundry, which is open to all, and have your chips made on the same terms as everyone else.

"If every company goes to foundries, using the same processes and cell libraries as everyone else, what differentiation can a company offer customers?", asks Malcolm Penn, CEO of analysts Future Horizons, "five years down the road, when ST (and for ST read NXP as well) asks: 'Why haven't we got any customers', the reply will be: 'We can get this from loads of other people cheaper, now that they're making them in the Congo