Advanced Micro Devices, the second largest comp microprocessor company, announced that last month it began shipping processors manufactured at Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, in Singapore.

The new AMD64 bit processors were manufactured under a 90 nanometer process, standard in today's microprocessor industry.

The Sunnyvale Calif. company said it selected Chartered to augment its production "because of a shared philosophy of flexibility and agility in manufacturing,' according to Daryl Ostrander, senior VP of logic technology at AMD, in a statement.

AMD and Chartered signed the manufacturing deal in 2004, aiming for volume production by the second half of 2006. On target, AMD was confident of its flawless execution and delivery.

"Achieving mature yields on-plan and ahead of schedule for 90nm volume production in support of AMD's expanding market opportunity have been our collective goals since we initiated our manufacturing collaboration in 2004, and we are equally proud of these results,' said Kay Chai "KC' Ang, senior VP of fabrication operations at Chartered.

The chipmaker said it will continue to enhance operations at Chartered with a planned transition to the more advanced 65 nanometer process technology in the middle of next year.

Intel current Woodcrest processor, introduced two weeks ago, already uses the 65 nanometer process.

Manufacturing Electronics Intel