What's different is that the codenamed Gemini processor from AppliedMicro (formerly referred to as AMCC) will not be manufactured in a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process by its long-time foundry partner--IBM. Instead, Gemini will be made using a 90-nm, bulk CMOS process from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC), as part of a new and expanded foundry arrangement between the two companies.

The expanded agreement with TSMC signals the first time that AppliedMicro's embedded microprocessors are available beyond complex and costly SOI fabrication processes. SOI is said to provide lower leakage in higher-end designs, but bulk CMOS is less expensive.

Gemini, formally called the AppliedMicro APM 83290, is a 32-bit, 1.5-GHz embedded processor that is geared for control-plane applications in basestations, gateways and networking equipment, said Paramesh Gopi, president and chief executive of AppliedMicro (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

Based on a mix of somewhat rival technologies--such as IBM's Power Architecture and TSMC's 90-nm, CMOS technology--the dual-core Gemini is ''two times'' less expensive than competitive SOI-based devices on the market, Gopi said. ''This represents a new cost point'' for the embedded processor market, he told EE Times at the company's headquarters here.

It also represents a slight change in strategy for the company. For years, TSMC, and to a lesser degree, UMC, have been making LAN/WAN-based devices on a foundry basis for fabless AppliedMicro.

In 2004, AppliedMicro broaden its portfolio by acquiring the assets of IBM's embedded PowerPC 400 series RISC processors. AMCC paid IBM $227 million in cash for intellectual property licensing and acquisition of affiliated products. As part of the terms, IBM exclusively manufactured the embedded processors for AMCC.

Until now, AppliedMicro had its entire line of Power Architecture embedded processors made on a foundry basis by IBM. Those parts are based on a SOI technology at linewidth geometries down to 90-nm. The Power Architecture is IBM's proprietary processor architecture, which has been exclusively made within IBM's fabs.

Gopi insisted that AppliedMicro will continue to sell embedded processors based on SOI. AppliedMicro's Power Architecture processor families have found sockets in wireless access points, cellular basestations and multifunction printers.