Cisco threw $1 billion into Intel to manufacture its chips

In Bratislava, Slovakia, rumors have been prevalent recentlyIntel(Intel's) foundry business may expand toCisco(Cisco) Manufacturing chip news. The point is that the deal could be as high as $1 billion.

 

We heard the news at an international e-forum hosted by Future Horizons in Bratislava last week. The news was mentioned by a speaker but called it "nothing more than a rumor," though analysts at investment bank Piper Jaffray reportedly told customers in a research note that Cisco and Intel may have signed a $1 billion foundry deal.

 

IntelFoundryKnown customers of the business include FPGA companies Achronix and Tabula, and network processor supplier Netronome.

 

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

 

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

 

 

 

The agreement was mentioned on an international electronic forum by John Lofton Holt, chairman and founder of Intel customer Achronix.

 

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