So, is Nvidia absolutely wanting to take a look at GlobalFoundries then? Carvill wouldn't say, but noted, "As long as it didn't compromise our relationship with AMD and customer service to them, we would happily have those discussions with Nvidia and anybody else."

AMD spin-off Global Foundries will take an "agnostic view" of the market according to its head of communications, Jon Carvill.

Much to the chagrin of the largest high-tech companies whose products have served as the foundation for computing for the past 30 years, the microprocessor is breaking free of the chains that bind it. ARM is a microprocessor manufacturer that is taking advantage of advancing technology's steady destruction of those chains forged by the likes of AMD, Intel, and Microsoft.

At the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference last year, AMD's Bruno La Fontaine revealed the IBM Alliance's Typhoon, a 45nm full-field test chip using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography at the first metal level. With that project finished the middle of last year, the alliance — including IBM, AMD, Toshiba and other partners — decided to kick it up a notch. "We were going to move on to 32nm, but technology is moving so fast, if we spent our time on that, we would never get to 16nm, which is where EUV will be used..."

It seems that more and more power will consolidate into the hands of fewer and fewer players.

The new management of The Foundry Company, which includes former AMD CEO Hector Ruiz, is expected to announce the official name of the company soon. When AMD does split in two, Meyer said he will not have any management role in the new company. However, AMD does stand to be The Foundry Company's largest customer, which will continue to tie the two companies together. Meyer also suggested that AMD might switch some of its ATI graphics chip production to The Foundry Company as well.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced today that its stockholders overwhelmingly approved a spinoff proposal to create The Foundry Company. The shareholder approval allows AMD to issue common stock and warrants to an affiliate of the Mubadala Development Co., paving the way for AMD and the Advanced Technology Investment Co. of Abu Dhabi to create the new foundry.

Rumors at ISSCC and other events are that Taiwan foundry vendor United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) is mulling over plans to join IBM's "fab club." The group, which co-develops advanced process technology and shares the associated costs, consists of AMD, Chartered, IBM, Infineon, ST, Toshiba, NEC, Freescale and Sony. AMD's proposed foundry spin-off is also part of the group.