December 18, 2007 – Toshiba has extended its two-year collaboration with IBM on 32nm-and below node technologies to now include 32nm bulk CMOS process technology, joining five other participants in the work.

“In addition to continuing the successful collaboration on fundamental advanced research, Toshiba will jointly develop the state-of-the-art 32nm bulk CMOS process integration technology, as a member of the world-class seven-company IBM Alliance,” said Shozo Saito, SVP of Toshiba Corp. and president/CEO of Toshiba’s Semiconductor Company, in a statement. He noted that Toshiba will accelerate its own development of integration technology for the 32nm process at its Advanced Microelectronics Center in Yokohama, Japan, “toward achieving early production of leading-edge devices.”

Other participants in the 32nm CMOS collaboration with IBM include AMD, Chartered, Freescale, Infineon, and Samsung, who last week said they have fabricated 32nm chips using a high-k/metal gate (gate-first) process, claiming about 45% total power savings. The technology is expected to be available in 2H09.

Toshiba has been very active in leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing of late. It’s extending a partnership with NEC Electronics to develop 32nm system LSIs, as well as possible joint production of 55nm-45nm-40nm codeveloped chip technologies. This fall Toshiba also signed a deal to take over Sony’s Cell microprocessor production under a new joint venture, reportedly at a price approaching 100 billion yen (about US $870 million).