TSMC will make chipsets for Intel

Intel’s new friend, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will make chipsets for the chip giant, according to a report.

The Taiwan Economic News says that TSMC will start making the Langwell chipset for Intel on a 65 nanometer process during this quarter.

This chipset will support the Intel Moorestown design which is aimed squarely at the mobile internet device (MID) market. The Taiwanese newspaper also believes that TSMC will start making system on a chip devices for the Atom microprocessor.

Earlier this year, Intel and TSMC signed a memorandum of understanding to make SoC devices. TSMC is a “pure play foundry”, meaning that it takes designs according to spec from companies without fabrication plants (fabs) and puts them together.

Of course, Intel is not at all “fabless” – it has plenty of big and expensive factories all around the world, but SoC designs are not its speciality by any means.

The same newspaper reports that Intel will propose a set of reference MID designs using Mooretown and in cooperating with Korean company LG and Finnish firm Nokia.