Chartered starts producing chips for AMD ahead of schedule

Chartered Semiconductor has begun making microchips for American tech giant Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD. It expects to start shipping wafers, built on 90 nanometre technology, to AMD, as early as July.

Analysts are impressed by Chartered's recent success in drawing in new customers. It is not only moving up the value chain, it is also getting ahead in advanced technologies with a contract to build 65 nanometre-technology chips for Microsoft's Xbox next year.

Deals such as that with AMD come with higher margins, and help Chartered better cope with the renowned ups and downs of the microchip industry. Analysts have said the AMD business is sizeable and could make up 10 per cent of Chartered's revenues by the end of this financial year.

Back in Nov 2004 :
www.xbitlabs.com :

AMD and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing announced they have entered into sourcing and manufacturing technology agreements whereby Chartered will implement under license portions of AMD's Automated Precision Manufacturing (APM) software suite and become an additional manufacturing source of AMD64 microprocessors.

As the latest processors from Advanced Micro Devices – AMD Athlon 64 and AMD Opteron – face high demand across the industry and is likely to continue growing, AMD needs higher supply of its chips in order to gain market share in future. Chartered, who has fabrication technology similar to AMD, will begin integrating AMD's APM into Fab 7, its 300mm wafer fabrication facility in Singapore, starting in the fourth quarter of 2004. AMD plans to have Chartered begin production in 2006.

Fannie Mae to pay US$400m fine in accounting scandal

channelnewsasia.com :

US mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae agreed to pay a US$400 million fine for massive accounting violations, officials said, after an audit reported "an arrogant and unethical corporate culture."

The settlement was announced jointly by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight after a OFHEO report detailed improper accounting and earnings manipulation designed to trigger bonuses for senior executives from 1998 to 2004. The audit found the government-chartered mortgage firm had poor internal controls, and as a result overstated reported income and capital by an estimated US$10.6 billion from 1998 to 2004. The report adds weight to calls for reform of the mortgage giant, the world's second largest borrower after the US government.

A government-chartered corporation, Congress created Fannie Mae to add more liquidity to the housing market and to help low- and middle-income families buy homes. Fannie Mae, along with other government-chartered mortgage entities, guarantees or owns trillions of dollars of loans. Although its bonds are not guaranteed by the US government, Fannie Mae is often seen as a safer investment than other private securities, although critics say the massive loan portfolio may have more risks than widely believed.

- So, is this the Enron of the housing market? Can a full-scale housing collapse be not too far behind?

(2006-05-24 18:12:49 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

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