Taiwan chip maker TSMC’s sales surge

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chip maker, said Friday its December 2009 sales more than doubled to New Taiwan dollars 30.47 billion ($1 billion).

The figure represented a 131 percent increase from the same month in 2008, the company said in a statement.

TSMC’s sales for full year 2009 totaled NT$285.74 billion ($8.95 billion), down 11.2 percent from 2008, it said.

The company, whose chips are used in devices from mobile phones to computers, didn’t comment on the sale increase. But its executives have said that a sharp rebound in demand from the second quarter of 2009 allowed the firm to gradually recover from a severe slump caused by the global financial crisis.

Separately, TSMC announced Friday it is working with San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc., a leading developer of advanced wireless technologies, on the cutting-edge 28 nanometer process technology.

The advanced process enables more features to be integrated into smaller chips, allowing semiconductors that power mobile devices to do far more with less power, TSMC said in a statement posted on its Web site.

The two companies have collaborated previously on 65 and 45 nanometer technologies.

Associated Press