Three of the world’s biggest chip players will cooperate

Three of the world’s biggest chip players will cooperate with one another to develop silicon wafers to improve efficiency in semiconductor manufacturing.

Intel said yesterday that a migration from 300mm (12-inch) silicon wafers to 450mm (18-inch) would yield more than double the number of chips per wafer.

The trio hopes to have developed and tested required components, infrastructure and capability by 2012, when it plans to punch out a pilot line of chips based on the 450mm technology.