On the recent event in Taiwan, Richard Heye, vice president of platform engineering and infrastructure at AMD told some additional details in regards the collaboration between Taiwanese based semiconductor manufacturer UMC and the Sunnyvale based CPU developer. Unfortunately, it now appears that everything is not so bright as we might expected earlier.

We have already told you that AMD will have to start manufacturing of the Barton code-named processors on the Fab30, located in Dresden (see this news-story) in the first quarter 2003. The first such CPUs with 2800+ and 3000+ model numbers will be made using SOI technology and advanced 0.13 microns manufacturing process. Previously it was expected that UMC would be able to start volume production of Athlon XP processors by the end of this year, however, now it is told that the contract semiconductor manufacturer will only handle AMD’s core-logic production this year. It means that UMC will make AMD760MPX chipsets and possibly AMD8000 bridges a bit later.

I have no idea if UMC will manufacture the x86-64 processors in 2003, but something makes me think that the Hammer code-named CPUs will only be made out of Germany when AMD and UMC launch their joint-venture fab in Singapore, sometimes in late 2004 or even 2005.