Intel signs manufacturing deal with Achronix

Intel has announced a deal to provide 22nm manufacturing facilities for chipmaker Achronix, which will use the space to manufacture field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that allow logic instructions to be hard-wired into chips.

The firm said that the FPGA chips target areas ranging from telecoms and industrial equipment to high-performance computing and imaging systems.

Intel said that the deal is less about monetary gain than about advancing its fabrication technology and exploring the possibility of further opening its manufacturing facilities to others.

Bill Kircos, director of product and technology media relations at Intel, said in a blog post that the deal ties up less than one per cent of Intel's manufacturing capacity, and is not be large enough to affect financial earnings reports.

Access to the 22nm manufacturing process will allow Achronix to boost FPGA performance by 300 per cent while cutting power consumption by 50 per cent, the firm claimed.

"Intel has the best process technology in the world, and we are privileged to have formed this strategic relationship which enables simultaneous improvements in speed, power, density and cost," said Achronix chief executive John Lofton Holt.

"The combination of the advanced 22nm process from Intel and the advanced FPGA technology from Achronix enables the Speedster22i platform to eclipse other FPGA solutions expected to hit the market in the next few years."

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