ARM Adds Globalfoundries to 64-bit SoC Manufacturers
Following a recent agreement with TSMC, ARM announced that it has also entered into a contract with Globalfoundries to support the production of next-gen processors, including upcoming 64-bit server SoCs and Mali GPUs.
The announcement scales to a 20 nm production process and FinFET process technologies, which will be critical for ARM as it must meet acceptable production volumes for its licensees. The company said that it will be developing a full IP platform as part of the agreement with Globalfoundries, including standard cell libraries, memory compilers and POP IP solutions.
Globalfoundries agreed to fine-tune its production process to the "next-generation" ARM Cortex processor and Mali graphics processor technologies. The goal is to shorten the time-to-market for processor designers and help them quickly migrate to 3D FinFET transistors and reduce the likelihood or production problems.
ARM has been much more aggressive pitching the importance of FinFET recently. While 20 nm processor prototypes have been taped, for example, by Cadence in late 2011, commercial 20 nm FinFET processors are not expected to arrive until 2014/2015.

At any rate, good on ARM. Now that Intel has them in their focus, they are going to need all the help they can get.
One has to remember that there are more ARM cores produced every year now than the combined number of x86 CPUs ever made. ARM needs a fantastic amount of production capacity that no single or indeed even group of processor manufacturers can lift.
x64 is AMDs x86s 64-bit extension (that Intel licenses, btw). Next generation ARM processor are 64-bit because they will be used in laptops, desktop and especially servers were a 64 bit register is needed.
GF isn't under AMD anymore afaik. And AMD uses TSMC.
Again, we're talking about 2014/2015. Intel's next gen (22nm) Atom SoC has support for up to 8GB RAM, and it's going to come out by the end of next year. Also, this won't be x86-64, this will be ARM64 or whatever they'll call it. And anyway, it's better to have 64-bit on any platform ASAP (unless it's too expensive), rather than have a lot of 32-bit optimized software when you'll change to 64-bit.
I mean, compare the time it's going to take the smartphone/tablet industry to shift from 32-bit to 64-bit to the time taken by the PC industry. I can't see how it's a bad thing. There's only one more console generation left anyway, IMO. After that, play Xbox games on your Surface tablet.
The transition will be quite long and practically unnoticeable by the end user as the ARM 64 bit architecture called ARMv8 can not only run 32 bit instructions on a 64 bit architecture but also run 64 bit instructions on a 32 bit architecture. So it's both backwards and forwards compatible.
I won't claim to know too much about ARM's architecture, so i'll take your word for it. I guess it's almost essential for transitioning to a new arch regardless of the platform, otherwise it'll be quite problematic.
AMD still uses GF a lot for their CPUs and APUs.
GF has been working with Samsung, among other companies, to improve.