UMC Claims

Electronic News, August 24, 1998 by Dylan McGrath

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- As the number of independent foundries proliferates, competition to bring product to market is intense and, in what it thinks could be the fastest turnaround time yet achieved by a silicon foundry, UMC Group said it reached full production shipment of S3 Inc.'s 128-bit Savage3D accelerator chip using 0.25-micron process technology in just 20 days.

Upon release of the Savage3D design from S3, UMC produced masks and working silicon in less than 20 days -- a record for 0.25-micron processing, at least for UMC Group and S3, the companies said. The Savage 3D product was announced in May (EN, May 4) and volume production started in early July.

Fastest Gun In The East

The Savage3D accelerator is aimed at the high-end PC market. UMC believes the turnaround of masks and working silicon in this instance is probably, although not certainly, an industry record. "From our understanding of the foundry industry, this is probably the fastest that a similar product has been made," he said. Industry observers noted, however, that competition among leading foundries such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), UMC, Chartered Semiconductor and others is fierce and UMC's newly claimed high water mark is not likely to stand for long.

Joanne Itow, a senior analyst at Semico Research, a Phoenix-based market research firm, said she did not know if 20 days actually represents an industry record, or even if it represents an extraordinary turnaround time given the circumstances.

Significant Accomplishment

Ms. Itow said the announcement in reality seems to be a significant one.

"The only thing that I would question is the cost. It probably cost a lot of money to achieve this. But, because of the partnership between S3 and UMC, they probably wanted to make a splash," she observed.

S3 has high hopes for the Savage3D accelerator. After missing a design cycle last year, S3 lost market share as well as engineers who fled to competitors when they saw the company's fortunes wane. As reported earlier, the company is pinning its hopes on the Savage3D as the chip that will lead it back to the top of the graphics market (EN, May 4).