IBM, Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor and Samsung Electronics will join forces to develop and manufacture chips using an advanced processing technology, a Reuters report said.
The Reuters report said the alliance partners, also including Germany's Infineon Technologies and privately owned US Freescale Semiconductor, said in a statement they signed development agreements that include 32-nanometre process technologies.
Jointly developing technologies and synchronizing manufacturing processes are growing trends in the industry and help chip makers cut costs and serve high-volume clients, the Reuters report said.
The report said the firms will work through 2010 to design, develop and produce the advanced-generation chips that can be used in products from mobile devices to supercomputers.
Technologies using ever diminishing circuit sizes help boost chip makers' productivity, but companies are finding the ceaseless move to smaller sizes increasingly difficult, the report added.