Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) has announced that it is expanding its Open Innovation Platform, an industry-wide initiative that has already helped to accelerate "time-to-market" for production processes.
Dr Fu-Chieh Hsu, vice-president of the Design Technology Platform and deputy head of research and development, said the scheme has so far delivered innovative design services and lowered costs.
He added: "The Open Innovation Platform will now begin addressing system-level design's cost and complexity and enable packaging of entire electronic systems on to multi-chip packages."
TSMC, the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, originally launched the initiative in 2008 and among the new areas of focus is to extend "beyond power, performance and area considerations" by looking at ecosystems programmes in the development of electronics.
Established in 1987, the firm builds its reputation on manufacturing efficiency and advanced wafer production, generating 9.96 million units in 2009.
It is also ranked in the top ten in terms of worldwide integrated circuit sales.