|
The
deal was signed between the Commerce Department's National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Google. The
chips will be manufactured by semiconductor company SkyWater
Technology at its Bloomington, Minnesota, semiconductor foundry,
the department said on Tuesday.
Google will pay the initial cost of setting up production and
will subsidize the first production run, according to the
agreement. NIST, with university research partners, will design
the circuitry for the chips.
The Biden administration's Chips and Science Act was recently
passed by Congress and signed into law. It authorizes funding
aimed at jump-starting the domestic production of semiconductors
in response to supply-chain disruptions.
A string of companies have announced new semiconductor plants
resulting from passage of the legislation, which authorized
about $52 billion in government subsidies for U.S. semiconductor
production and research, and an investment tax credit for chip
plants estimated to be worth $24 billion.
"NIST anticipates designing as many as 40 different chips
optimized for different applications. Because the chip designs
will be open source, researchers will be able to pursue new
ideas without restriction and share data and device designs
freely," the Commerce Department said in a statement.
Research partners contributing to the chip designs include the
University of Michigan, the University of Maryland, George
Washington University, Brown University and Carnegie Mellon
University, the statement added.
Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in WashingtonEditing by Matthew
Lewis)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
