Through-Silicon-Via technology fuses memory + GPU to enable cutting-edge performance

HSINCHU, Taiwan, July 20, 2015 — (PRNewswire) —  United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE:UMC;TWSE: 2303) ("UMC"), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced that it has entered volume production for the Through-Silicon-Via (TSV) technology used on the AMD Radeon™ R9 Fury X, the flagship GPU in the recently announced Radeon™ R 300 Series of graphics cards. The AMD Radeon™ R9 Fury X GPU utilizes UMC's TSV process technology and die-stacking to fuse HBM DRAM with AMD's GPU on a silicon interposer, enabling the GPU to deliver unmatched memory bandwidth of 4096-bit and quadruple the performance-per-watt over the current GDDR5 industry standard.

"AMD has a successful history of delivering cutting-edge GPU products to market," said S.C. Chien, vice president of Corporate Marketing and co-chair of the TSV committee at UMC. "This volume production milestone is the culmination of UMC's close TSV collaboration with AMD, and we are happy to bring the performance benefits of this technology to help power their new generation of GPU products. We look forward to continuing this fruitful partnership with AMD for years to come."

Bryan Black, senior fellow at AMD said, "UMC's long track record of bringing innovative technologies from the R&D stage to volume production for customer products was a compelling reason for us to engage with them as our foundry for the interposer and associated TSV technology. They have again proven their ability to execute successfully with TSV on our latest high-performance GPU, and we are pleased to have them as a valuable supply-chain partner for our exciting new line of Radeon products."

AMD's GPU and stacked HBM dies are placed on top of UMC's interposer that employs a TSV process. Through a CMOS redistribution layer and advanced micro-bumping, these ICs communicate with each other on the interposer, thus enabling the cutting-edge performance and form factor of AMD's Radeon™ R9 Fury X. AMD's silicon interposer with TSV is manufactured at UMC's specialty 300mm Fab 12i in Singapore.

About UMC

UMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that provides advanced IC production for applications spanning every major sector of the electronics industry. UMC's robust foundry solutions enable chip designers to leverage the company's sophisticated technology and manufacturing, which include 28nm gate-last High-K/Metal Gate technology, ultra-low power platform processes specifically engineered for Internet of Things (IoT) applications and the highest-rated AEC-Q11 Grade-0 automotive industry manufacturing capabilities. UMC's 10 wafer fabs are located throughout Asia and are able to produce over 500,000 wafers per month. The company employs over 17,000 people worldwide, with offices in Taiwan, mainland China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.

Note from UMC Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements in the foregoing announcement are forward looking within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Securities laws, including statements about future outsourcing, wafer capacity, technologies, business relationships and market conditions. Investors are cautioned that actual events and results could differ materially from these statements as a result of a variety of factors, including conditions in the overall semiconductor market and economy; acceptance and demand for products from UMC; and technological and development risks. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in UMC's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its registration statements and reports on Forms F-1, F-3, F-6 and 20-F and 6-K, in each case as amended. UMC does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.

Editorial Contacts:

UMC
Richard Yu
(886) 2-2658-9168 ext. 16951
Email Contact 

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SOURCE United Microelectronics Corporation

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