Above: Fab 8 in Saratoga County, N.Y. begins production. Image courtesy of GlobalFoundries.

Lost among all the hubbub of CES last week was the news that GlobalFoundries has started initial production at its new factory in upstate New York, as part of a joint venture with IBM. You may remember that GlobalFoundries is the manufacturing division formed from a spinoff of AMD a few years back. It is in the process of building one of the world's largest semiconductor factories (or "fabs") in Saratoga County, N.Y., just north of Albany. Although that fab, known as Fab 8, isn't completed yet, it is far enough along that initial manufacturing could begin, and GlobalFoundries now says it started manufacturing on December 27.

The company says it is working with IBM to build 32nm processors with embedded DRAM, apparently high-end processors designed for IBM that will be made both in the new GlobalFoundries facility and at IBM's 300mm fab in East Fishkill, N.Y. These new processors, which are aimed at server and storage systems, are expected to ramp to volume production in the second half of 2012.

From a process standpoint, the new chips are built on a 32nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process using a "Gate First" high-k/metal gate technology developed by IBM's Process Development Alliance, which includes AMD, GlobalFoundries, and others. A similar process is already being used at GlobalFoundries' Dresden, Germany plant to create 32nm chips for AMD, notably its Llano Fusion APUs and its Bulldozer-based chips for servers and high-end desktops.

According to GlobalFoundries CEO Ajit Manocha, the plant in Malta, N.Y. should be in volume production for both 32nm SOI and 28nm bulk silicon wafers by next year, with trial production of 20nm products starting this summer. The Malta plant will be mainly focused on 28nm and 20nm products, Manocha said, and he thinks these will be "long-lived nodes," meaning that production with these processes should be around for a long time.    

At 14nm, the technology will likely transition to FinFets or other more complex transistor designs, with lithography potentially moving to EUV. He said the jury is still out on a possible transition to 450mm wafers (where much of the research is being driven by a manufacturing consortium based in the Albany area.)

Overall, Manocha said the company, which is primarily owned by the Advanced Technology Investment Corp. (ATIC) of Abu Dhabi, plans to spend $3 billion in capital expense this year, with the vast majority going to the New York plant. The overall plan is to have technology in North America, Europe (Germany), Asia (Singapore, through the factories that were part of the acquisition of Chartered Semiconductor), and perhaps eventually Abu Dhabi itself. This will provide a "global footprint," with manufacturing and processes delivered where the customers want.

It's great to see an advanced choice in the U.S., where Manocha said the plant will employ about 2,000 high-end workers and create many more jobs to support those workers. In addition to providing jobs, Manocha said, having a New York plant satisfies customers who want to keep their intellectual property in the country.