Cisco spent $1 billion to find Intel to build its chips

In Bratislava, Slovakia, there have been recent rumors that Intel's foundry business may expand to make chips for Cisco. The point is that the deal could be as high as $1 billion.

 

We heard about this last week at the International Electronics Forum organized by Future Horizons in Bratislava. The news was mentioned by a speaker, but said it was "just a rumor", but analysts at investment bank Piper Jaffray also reportedly told customers in a research note that Cisco and Intel may have signed a $1 billion foundry agreement.

 

Known customers of Intel's foundry business include FPGA companies Achronix and Tabura, as well as network processor supplier Netronome.

 

At present, most of Cisco's silicon chips use the 40nm process, and a few use 28nm. Intel provides foundry services with 22nm FinFET technology.

 

Therefore, for Cisco, a company with about 750 chip designers, it seems that the time is right to move to the next generation of process nodes. Intel's high-performance silicon chips seem to make sense to network equipment and chip companies, as they will be able to bring their own intellectual property and IP cores into the design process.

 

 

 

The agreement was mentioned at the International Electronics Forum by John Lofton Holt, chairman and founder of Intel customer Achronix.

 

In the distant past (2004), Cisco used IBM as its chip foundry. However, the $1 billion deal is quite staggering, and even though the agreement may be many years, it is a rare order for other chip companies.