If you asked the crowd at Chips North in Ottawa, that\u2019s an understatement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paul Slaby, managing director of Canada\u2019s Semiconductor Council, told me this could create the next TSMC, the world\u2019s largest contract chipmaker, for optical computing in Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The CPFC fabricates the compound semiconductors used in faster and more energy-efficient photonic computing. Demand is evident: CPFC director general Velko Tzolov said on stage that clients have asked how much it would cost to buy up 100 percent of its manufacturing capacity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CPFC is the only foundry of its kind in North America and, according to Slaby and others, also the best in the world. By spinning it out, CPFC can get the private capital it needs to scale up and fulfil that demand.<\/p>\n
That would also mean Canada is on the ground floor for what hardware leaders see as the next trillion-dollar age of computing. Joe Costello, CEO of Ottawa-based Inpho, likened it to the early days of Silicon Valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like there are thousands of places to go\u2026 there\u2019s not already some dominant player,\u201d Costello said. \u201cYou gotta come to Ottawa.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
If Costello is right, the Ottawa Valley might soon have a new moniker.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alex Riehl
Staff Writer, Ottawa<\/p>\n
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