In an interview with GlobalFoundries’ Vice President of Manufacturing Systems and Technology Tom Sonderman, it has been revealed that AMD is preparing to employ a 32/28nm process for GPU production.

The process is the result of joint efforts in the IBM Technology Alliance that counts IBM, Chartered Semiconductor, GlobalFoundries, Infineon Technologies, Samsung Electronics and STMicroelectronics as its members. The allied firms have been hard at work to realize a 28nm implementation of high-k metal gate (HKMG) transistor, a technology Intel already uses for both its 45nm and 32nm process nodes.

The HKMG process is prized for its robustness in fighting electron leakage, a phenomenon that engineers must increasingly reconcile with to combat poor yields as fabrication shrinks to ever-smaller sizes.

“The low-power, 28nm technology platform can provide power-performance and time-to-market advantages for producers of a broad range of power-sensitive mobile and consumer electronics applications, including the fast-growing mobile Internet device market segment. The favorable leakage characteristics of the HKMG technology result in optimized battery life for the next generation of mobile products.”

When polled for a timeline on the migration of AMD’s GPU production to GlobalFoundries, Sonderman cited the 32/28nm era. “We intend on competing for AMD’s graphics business in the 32nm/28nm technology node,” he said.

This falls in line with the recent announcement that the IBM Technology Alliance would begin sampling their 28nm technology by the end of 2010.

“A 28nm low-power technology evaluation kit was previously made available in December 2008 to early access clients, followed by release in March 2009 of an evaluation kit for open access to the general marketplace. Early risk production is anticipated in the second half of 2010,” reads the release.

The IBM Technology Alliance also plans to implement “half-node” fabrication, which will permit 32nm designs to shrink to 28nm without a redesign when the process enters production in 2011.

While AMD GPUs will transition to the 32nm/28nm nodes over the next 24 months, it remains to be seen how the development of a 28nm process will impact the course of AMD’s CPU plans which are set to include 32nm parts by the middle of 2010.

No doubt AMD timed their reveal to piss on the foot of a certain rival which just announced that it had begun sampling 32nm parts to competitors.