AMD'S BEST PAL ISONICS has signed
a letter of intent to acquire the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer business
of Vancouver, Washington-based Silicon Evolution.
Isonics will take over all contracts,
raw materials, in-process inventory, intellectual property, and fixed assets
including clean rooms and wafer manufacturing equipment in exchange for
2 million shares of Isonics common stock. Silicon Evolution's management
will become Isonics employees.
SEI builds SOI wafers for optical
telecommunications, micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) and digital
signal processors.
Isonics says that SEI has a
new manufacturing process that is 'less capital intensive and requires fewer
steps than traditional wafer production, enabling profitable operations
to be achieved at lower production levels and with less capital investment.
James Alexander, Isonics' Chairman
& CEO says: "Upon completion of the transaction, Isonics will have the capability
to generate near-term revenues through the sales of SOI wafers, and we expect
to reach profitability within 12 months. We plan to rapidly ramp natural
SOI wafer sales and begin sampling Si-28 SOI wafers soon after completion
of this transaction."
Check out The Inq's earlier
coverage of the wacky world of Super Silicon and how AMD is terribly excited
about the whole thing here.
* AMD SAID it has shipped
its 10 millionth AMD Athlon out of its Dresden fab.
