It's taken Intel just three years to shrink its system-on-chip (SoC) process node from 32nm to 14nm (with a pitstop at 22nm along the way), and by 2014, it will be shipping 14nm chips in volume. Can anyone compete? Globalfoundries intends to give it an honest effort by aggressively accelerating its roadmap with a 14nm process of its own. The company's competing 14nm-XM (eXtreme Mobility) process will leverage 3D FinFET transistor technology for higher performance and better power efficiency in mobile devices.

One thing you can't say about Globalfoundries is that it's afraid to spend money. After being spun-off from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in 2009, the contract chip maker went on to spend $8 billion through 2011 and now plans to spend an additional $3 billion on fabs and related equipment, with most of the funds going towards finishing a plant in New York and filling it with equipment.

A super group of five tech giants led by Intel and IBM will invest $4.4 billion over the next five years developing the next generation of computer chip technology in New York. This joint investment is expected to create nearly 7,000 jobs and retain thousands more, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced. The rest of the fab five include Globalfoundries, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), and Samsung.

GlobalFoundries and Samsung this week announced plans to extend their collaboration agreement and synchronize global semiconductor fabrication facilities to build high performance, low leakage 28nm chips based on High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) technology. The technology takes aim at mobile applications and, according to Samsung, begins to blur the line between mobile and desktop silicon.