The foundry spinoff, dubbed GlobalFoundries (Sunnyvale, Calif.), has one 300-mm fab in operation, with another two on the drawing board. The company will compete against other foundry vendors, but the startup has its sights set on market leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC).

Many of the details of GlobalFoundries have been expected and disclosed for months. Last year, AMD moved to split the company into two parts. AMD itself has now become fabless, as it spun out its manufacturing arm into a new and independent foundry vendor.

''We're beginning our business,'' said Doug Grose, chief executive of GlobalFoundries, in an interview. ''We see this as a game changer. There is a need to have an alternative (foundry) that is not set in Asia.''

But the company is opening up for business amid a terrible downturn, in which foundries are losing money and seeing poor demand. ''At same point, this (downturn) is going to turn,'' he said.

GlobalFoundries is a joint venture between AMD and the Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC) of Abu Dhabi. Under the current plan, AMD will own a 34.2 percent stake of the foundry venture, while ATIC will own the remaining shares.

The new foundry venture will have 2,800 employees. Some 300 are based in the U.S. As expected, GlobalFoundries will service the manufacturing needs of AMD and other customers, putting the new foundry company in direct competition with SMIC, TSMC, UMC, and, to some degree, Chartered, IBM, Samsung and others.

Last October, the foundry spinoff became the latest member in IBM's ''fab club,'' which also includes Chartered, IBM and Samsung. The spinoff will gain access to IBM's common platform technology, including its 32-nm technology. The 32-nm process, to ship by year's end, includes high-k and metal gates.