Today’s announcement from the well-known full service semiconductor company, Global Foundries and QuickLogic (NASDAQ:QUIK), will interest those looking for ultra low power (ULP) sensor hubs. The new ArcticLink 3 S2 is optimized for smartphones and the new wearable devices.

QuickLogic is known as being an innovator of ultra low power programmable Customer Specific Standard Products — silicon platforms plus software solutions. Its next generation ArcticLink 3 S2 platform is sampling on Global Foundries own lower power 65 nanometer process technology. Global Foundries also prides itself on its 14nm FinFET leading edge technologies fashioned for high-volume, high-performance and power-efficient SoC applications.

Sensor hubs like the 3 S2 store sensor data and sensor algorithms and run them. They should execute those functions quickly. The ArcticLink 3 S2 Sensor Hub a context-aware sensor hub. It promises OEMs four times the computational capability, four times the sensor algorithm memory, and eight times the sensor data memory in a pin-identical footprint. The hub’s active power consumption is ~150μW, meaning the sub-system consumes less than 2 percent of system battery resources. A video explanation of the new ArcticLink 3 S2 can be viewed here.

The 3 S2 is completely compatible with the Android 4.x OS, including KitKat 4.4, and RTOS-based systems. It can support 12 sensors simultaneously, such as gesture, heart rate, gyroscope, and ambient light. The developer provides standard Android driver libraries so OEM systems can quickly integrate with the hub. Software, sensor and sensor algorithm engineers are able to customize the functionality of the ArcticLink 3 S2 through QuickLogic’s Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and Development Board.

Global Foundries’ 65nm LPe (low power enhanced) technology significantly improves power utilization while extending battery life by using innovative leakage reduction techniques. This makes it perfect for battery operated mobile applications that are cost sensitive. The semiconductor company’s technology is helping QuickLogic optimize its latest product.

Brian Faith, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at QuickLogic and an Adjunct Lecturer at Santa Clara University for Programmable Logic courses said: “This new collaboration with Global Foundries as the manufacturer for the S2 platform will help us meet our demanding time-to-market requirements with a technology that delivers the right balance of performance, power consumption, and cost.”
Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president of product management at Global Foundries pointed out: “As the industry continues its seismic shift from PC to mobility, a whole new set of applications and devices are driving the need for differentiated silicon solutions,”

QuickLogic Corporation is traded as QUIK on NASDAQ and has held a value in the mid $3.00 for the last five years. Global Foundries is privately held, owned by Mubadala Development Company out of Abu Dhabi. Global Foundries has three 300mm fabs and five 200mm fabs providing a full range of process technologies from mainstream to the leading edge from the US to Germany to Malta to Singapore.

The S2 Sensor Hub is expected to be production-certified in Q4 2014.

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In the five years since GlobalFoundries broke ground in Malta, Saratoga County, New York for their Fab 8, they have exceeded their promise of job creation in the community. Instead of its initial projection of 1,200 new jobs, the company is responsible for approximately 2,400, including construction of the Technology Development Center on its existing 223 acre campus.

The direct jobs have a trickle down effect resulting in 3,000 indirect jobs according to a study by Dr. Everett Ehrlich, business economist. GlobalFoundries also made a capital investment of $6.9 billion, plus the building of the new Technology Development Center which increases that number by $2.1 billion as reported by the Saratoga Economic Development Corporation (SEDC). In January, Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Investment Company’s (ATIC) chief executive said they plan to invest up to $10 billion over the next two years in GlobalFoundries’ upstate New York semiconductor factory.

GlobalFoundries Fab 8 first job fair drew nearly 1,500 applicants in Saratoga, New York

GlobalFoundries has an interesting history. It came into being in March 2009 through a partnership between AMD and Mubadala Technology (formerly known as ATIC). In January 2010, the company picked up Chartered Semiconductor. In 2012, AMD [NYSE:AMD] divested itself of GlobalFoundries which is now wholly owned by Mubadala Technology (formerly known as ATIC). With corporate offices in California’s Silicon Valley and manufacturing facilities in Germany, Singapore and New York, GlobalFoundries now has five 200mm fabs and three 300mm fabs in production.

In Saratoga, their first chips were manufactured in 2012 using the 32nm SOI (silicon on insulator) process. The customer for the 32nm microprocessors which featured HKMG (High-K Metal Gate) and eDRAM was IBM. The SOI process was used to build the microprocessor that powered IBM Watson, the question-answering computer that won the Jeopardy quiz show.

Since then, the relationship between IBM and GlobalFoundries has waxed and waned. Big Blue was courting GlobalFoundries to buy its not-so-profitable chip-manufacturing operations. However, reports indicate that GlobalFoundries’ bid was lower than what IBM had hoped for. It is said that GlobalFoundries wanted IBM’s intellectual property, not its physical property which is no longer state of the art.

GlobalFoundries has not relied solely on IBM business. For example, a fabless semiconductor company is using the 55nm eFlash NVM Platform from GlobalFoundries which is a member of the Automotive Electronics Council (AEC). Scaleo chip headquartered in Sophia-Antipolis, France specializes in automotive electronics for powertrain and in-vehicle information. The company has developed a new family of microcontrollers embedding unique technologies related to real-time process and control of highly electrified internal combustion engines and electric motors using the GlobalFoundries’ Platform. The microcontrollers are based on programmable logic and a set of ISO 26262 compliant functional safety features to improve powertrain system safety integrity and accuracy.

GlobalFoundries technicians work in a cleanroom

The Scaleo order is only one of many opportunities for prospective GlobalFoundries employees to work on. If you want to be one of the many international applicants interested in working at the Malta campus on the grounds of a former missile testing range, GlobalFoundries is hiring. A few of the open positions are: hardware test engineer, manager of information technology, senior financial analyst, and equipment technician.

Despite its success, GlobalFoundries has its problems ranging from anecdotal to tragic. This week, three individuals were charged with grand larceny for stealing scrap metal from the plant. On a more serious note, a man employed by a construction company working on the new Technology Development Center was fatally injured as they were moving an industrial air exchanger into a fourth floor opening. Construction was suspended during an investigation of the accident.

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