GF playing the semiconductor field

Global Foundries wants to distance itself from AMD.

Global Foundries wants to kick AMD out of its bed and onto the couch, according to some of the company's executives.

In a discussion at Semicon west today, Globalfoundries executives expressed concern at the amount of press he'd been reading about how his firm was perceived as being "an AMD-only shop."

The firm insisted that although Glofo did need AMD for some of its tools as it launches, the fab spin-off was doing its utmost to spin itself further away from its former parent.

Glofo will be making its first strides towards organisational independence this coming September and that a service level agreements with AMD expires , by the end of the year which, if not quite a divorce, will give the two firms a comfortable level of separation. This means AMD will have to relinquish its role as live-in lover to become 'just another date', as Glofo opens up to other customers interested in its wares.

We asked whether this seperation from AMD might have consequences as far as x86 cross-licences are concerned, but we were told in no uncertain terms by Jon Carvill, Glofo's head of communications, that it would have "no impact" on his firm and that ultimately this was an AMD/Intel issue.

To differentiate itself as much as possible from AMD structurally, Global Foundries told us it has flattened itself out into something it likes to call its "new foundry model," eliminating much of its former hierarchy in the name of efficiency and common sense. Whereas IDMs like AMD have upwards of 17 levels of bureaucratic fiefdoms, Glofo boasted it will have significantly less as a foundry, so no senior, senior vice presidents, senior directors, corporate vice presidents or regional veeps to confuse and confound us then.

Also, in another strong hint that a big announcement may be in the offing, the firm's senior VP of design enablement, Mojy Curtis Chian, cryptically told us that Glofo isn't so much pushing AMD away, but is instead "working with other customers also." Hmmm. We wonder who those might be. Watch this space.