GLOBALFOUNDRIES, the new leading-edge semiconductor foundry company formed by a joint venture between AMD and Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), today announced the appointment of Curtis "Mojy" Chian as senior vice president of design enablement.

Chian brings more than two decades of leadership experience in silicon process technologies, most recently at Altera Corporation, where he served as vice president of technology development. At GLOBALFOUNDRIES, he will be responsible for global design enablement and will be the primary technical customer interface-working closely with customers to efficiently bring the world's most sophisticated chip designs to market."As we continue the transformation to a leading-edge foundry, design enablement will be one of the most critical functions to support the acquisition of new customers," said Doug Grose, chief executive officer of GLOBALFOUNDRIES. "Mojy brings the right combination of technical know-how and leadership experience to oversee our design enablement team, which is charged with ensuring that our customers' designs can be produced in high volume on leading-edge technology, while ensuring the fastest possible time-to-market."

Chian will be based in Sunnyvale, Calif., which will serve as the GLOBALFOUNDRIES center of excellence for design enablement. He also will be responsible for building a global partner ecosystem that consists of a range of design IP and EDA providers to ensure that customers have the necessary design infrastructure.

"The establishment of GLOBALFOUNDRIES has created tremendous enthusiasm among potential customers by offering a strong alternative for advanced technologies," Chian said. "Our competitive advantage will be through providing a best-in-class customer experience at the leading edge. We plan to work closely with potential customers to align our technologies and capacity with their products and business requirements. Over the course of 2009, we will take steps to build out the design enablement team as we prepare to accept third-party designs later this year."

At Altera Corporation, Chian managed all development, infrastructure, and manufacturing aspects of silicon process technologies. While overseeing a global team of engineers in San Jose, Malaysia, and Taiwan, he also served as TSMC's technology ambassador to Altera customers. Prior to Altera, Chian was senior vice president of core technology and analog engineering at Mindspeed Technologies.

Chian holds bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering, as well as a master's degree in applied mathematics, from Florida Institute of Technology.