Intel has announced that MediaTek will be the first big customer to work with it on its foundry services. MediaTek is best known for making smartphone processors based on Arm technology and chips for other smart edge devices. The partnership should help the company have a more reliable supply chain worldwide, especially in the US and Europe. In turn, this should make it easier for more devices to use MediaTek processors without supply problems.
Intel started Foundry Services (IFS) last year as part of a new plan to let other companies use its manufacturing facilities. MediaTek was one of the first companies to sign up for IFS. Most of the time, Intel only makes x86 processors, but the foundry services can also make Arm processors.
“As one of the world’s leading fabless chip designers that powers more than 2 billion devices every year, MediaTek is a great partner for IFS as we move into our next growth phase,” said Randhir Thakur, president of IFS. “We have the right mix of advanced process technology and capacity in different parts of the world to help MediaTek deliver the next billion connected devices for a wide range of uses.” Read More; Intel Vs AMD: Which CPUs are Better in 2022
Intel has been making many big investments to improve its ability to make things. The company just finished expanding its factory in Oregon and announced that it would spend $20 billion to build a new factory in Licking County, Ohio. Also, more than $36 billion in Europe is being spent on expanding existing facilities and building new ones. The goal is to make Intel a manufacturing powerhouse, not just for its own processors but also for processors made by other companies.
All of this is part of the company’s IDM 2.0 strategy, which sees Intel not only becoming a major foundry partner for other chip designers but also relying on other foundries to make some of its own chips. This should make the ecosystem more open and fluid and, if all goes well, lead to more manufacturing capacity in the industry as a whole. Read Also; Intel Core i7-12700K vs AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
Having MediaTek as one of its partners is a big deal since the company is almost as popular on mobile devices as Qualcomm. This is not the first time Intel and MediaTek have worked together. They are already making 5G modems for PCs that connect to cellular networks.
