Japanese Renesas and Taiwanese TSMC jointly announced on May 28 that they will enter a collaboration agreement under which they will extend their partnership to develop a MCU (Microcontroller) platform leveraging Renesas' 40nm eFlash (embedded Flash) technology and TSMC's CMOS (Complementary-Symmetry Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) logic and analog IPs in order to compete with their rivals and lower production costs, Reuters reported on May 28. Renesas stated that the new platform due to be developed with TSMC is slated for completion by the year-end 2012. Unlike the previous agreement signed between Renesas and TSMC for Renesas' 90nm process technology, the new 40-nm agreement will allow TSMC to use Renesas' embedded flash technology on TSMC's own 40-nm process and to release to its customers worldwide, according to the same source. The plan however will have to wait for approval by Renesas' shareholders which have 90% of Renesas shares in total, including Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and NEC. Meanwhile, Renesas expect to increase the share of chip production generated overseas by 2016 and 2017.