IBM and STMicroelectronics (STM) SA are teaming up on the development of system on a chip x86s, for devices such as PDAs, and multi-function chips for data storage. The first integrated circuit developed by IBM and the Franco-Italian chip company to hit the market will be the x86, toward the end of the year, followed by an IC designed for hard disk drives in the first quarter of 1998, a spokesperson for STM said. The companies’ work aims to cut the number of chips needed for a hard disk drive system to one or two – down from four or five. The two companies will develop the microprocessors together, but brand and sell them separately. Apart from chips for hard disk drives, which both already produce, the companies will develop ICs hand-held devices and set top-boxes that need low cost chips manufactured in volume. However, the deal does not extend to manufacturing, the spokesperson said. The companies will share a range of intellectual property, covering microprocessor and microcontroller cores, digital signal processors (DSPs), and sound and video cores. STM will to IBM’s PowerPC technology in exchange for its own DSPs and CMOS read channel technologies.
