LSI Logic Corp is the latest major to confirm that Singapore had a very bright idea when it created Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte Ltd as a foundry chip fabricator open to anyone prepared to take a stake in it. LSI will pay $20m for its minority equity position and in return gets access to 0.6 micron and finer semiconductor fabrication capacity from early next year and for 10 years thereafter. The agreement will make it easier for the Milpitas chipmaker to cope with peaks in demand for its CoreWare and ASIC products. Its investment buys space in the new $800m Fab II, which is scheduled to begin production in the second half of the year and has been designed to be capable of producing CMOS logic products down to 0.2-micron geometries using 8 wafers. Other investors in the new Chartered wafer fabrication facility in clude Toshiba Corp, Rockwell International Inc, Brooktree Corp and Actel Corp.
