Intel invests $7 billion in Stateside 32nm manufacturing
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Feb 10th 2009 12:23PM
posted Feb 10th 2009 12:23PM
You might not be getting you hands on that Calpella any time soon, but that isn't a sign that Intel is backing down -- if anything, the company has big things in store, including a newly announced $7 billion plan to upgrade four of its Stateside facilities so they can start rolling out those new-fangled 32nm chips we've been hearing so much about. This is good news for the struggling American manufacturing sector, and great news for fans of smaller, faster gadgets -- but not particularly great news for AMD, who entered the new year with a $1.4 billion loss and an eroding share of the x86 processor market.[Via Forbes]
AMD used to be the enthusiast leader. Faster, Cheaper, Overclockable, SLI. Then they had to buy ATi (Dumbest move) and lost SLI. OOh, they have CrossFire, which sucks.
They completely lost it.
AMD is falling behind, thats why they get my business EXCLUSIVELY.
What does SLI have to do with AMD? AMD never made motherboard chipsets or videocards...
Why do people insist on posting unfounded and totally false information?
AMD did, indeed, design and manufacture its own chipsets right up until 2003, when it stopped doing so until the purchase of ATI.
AMD boards can still do SLi dude
@Game_Playa: That's not what I meant. AMD had SLI almost exclusively before they purchased ATI. Now, its the other way around. Maybe 3 AM2/AM2+ boards have the nForce 750 chipset and SLI but x16 + x8 or x8 + x8 only. 0 AM3 boards have SLI.
Intel has boards with 2 or 3 PCI-E x16 2.0 with two FULL speed x16 lanes. Most 3 PCI-E x16 2.0 boards support x16 + x16 or x16 + x8 + x8.
Where's AMD at? Oh yeah, the chipsets that support SLI on their platform can't handle two simultaneous x16 transports.
Oh, sorry about that then. Why didn't AMD purchase nVdia then?
Because NVIDIA wasn't nearly as cheap to buy.
De-unionized US factories FTW.
Yes.
double yes. then re-unionize using some brains.
No.
free market?? free market my ass. nobody knows anything about the economy, not even those expert economists. you wanna see free market in action...? well, here it is....2 major chip manufacturers are left (don't say VIA) and one of them is pommeling the other at the moment. If AMD dies, well guess what, Intel's by itself. And while that may not mean anything bad, if they decide to .... they can gouge us, stop innovating, etc. etc. and we'd all be screwed. And if you think some tiny company is going to come up and crush them (free market forces, blah blah blah), how likely is that going to happen when Intel's gonna have time and money on its side. Not to mention, it can just buy out any smaller companies that startup that may compete with it (like the big4 cellular networks are doing right now).
free market economy is only good when saddled with a guiding hand.
While I somewhat agree with you, the fault here lies with AMD. If they made better products, had better marketing, and frankly better management, they would be a better competitor to Intel. It's not Intel's fault that AMD can't seem to compete.
FYI, I AMD laptop last year...
Oh, I get it. The government should force Intel to cripple their chips, so there is some compeitition! We should all contact our local congressman and see if they'll add that to the economic stimulus bill...not.
Go back to living off wellfare, you socialist scum.
Also, I'd like to point out that Intel's planned investment of $7B to create 32nm processors seems to invalidate your point a bit. Don't forget that in this industry, software drives hardware requirements. 9 of my last 10 computers were Intel. Intel's biggest competitor is Intel and has been for quite some time.
right jack, few flaws in your plan....
What about IBM, im pretty sure they make a shit ton of chips.........
and a smaller company over-throwing a bigger company? If you went back to the mid 90's and said that two guys in a garage would soon rival MS they would think your crazy...refering to Google btw...
All it takes is one idea
Thanks for showing your limited knowledge of the market.
Intel had a virtual monopoly, than AMD came and pushed them. If AMD is out, someone else will step in (and not necessarily some startup). Doesn't matter though, the market dictates that Intel has to innovate to generate new sales and they have to lower prices to get people to purchase. If Intel stops innovating and lowering prices than people stop buying new computers. The market forces are much more than just two companies competing.
There are also new products competing, for example the high end smart phones and netbooks moving in on laptops. There are a bunch of new competitors for Intel coming with those products.
A guilding hand isn't the answer, it is sad but oversight is just as likely to limit innovation and advancement as much as increase competition. The best way to increase competition, make everyone play on an even playing field (see NASCAR for an example). That isn't conductive for innovation.
@From My Cube
WTF is a "shit ton"?
Obviously it's a ton of shit, however do not confuse it with a metric shit ton, or a long shit ton which are altogether different.
I believe 32nm is the magic linewidth for when Atom can actually be deployed on MIDs/new UMPCs like these: http://www.xhibitingblog.com/2008/09/slide-and-tilt/
*crosses fingers*
A chip company invests in America?????????? I smell a demand for bailout.
That would not be the worst type of bail-out or would it?
Yeah, seriously, I'd rather see bailout money go to a company like Intel rather than a failing automaker.
I'm all for progress and faster chips/lower prices, but damn I just got a 45nm chip. Luckily this looks to be a 2 year plan to upgrade the facilities. By then my i7 will probably be old enough to be worth being replaced by its new 32nm brethren.
Fab factories are like ghost towns, very few people work there. Its a highly sealed and is also almost completely automated. However suppliers will benefit.
You do realize that it takes a lot of materials and labor to construct a $7B facility, right? That is job creation right there.
They are not constructing a new facility, just retrofitting all the fab equipment...
I don't care what they make... I'm just happy for myself...
I currently work at Intel as one of their major vendors...
You guys have no idea how bad it is in semicon industry right now..
Looks like my job may be saved...
what exactly do you do?
He's in the janitorial industry.
@unzarjones: Even if he were, you shouldn't poo-poo any job created/held on to by this money Intel's dumping into the economy right now. There is truth to trickle down economics.
Exactly, here's what happened to my 12 year career in semi.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/local/article/B-QIMO04_20090203-222213/197474/
http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/local/article/B-QIMO06_20090205-223016/199588/
No more US manufactured GDDR3 memory for your 360's, PS3's, Wii's, which is what we made. When people actually start buying these products again (and burn through all the excess inventory) it will be coming out of Taiwan and eventually mainland China. We got kicked to the curb with no 60 days notice and no severance.
Bravo. I think this would be a great move for Apple to copy, and use some of its cash in a patriotic move toward rejuvenating the manufacturing sector. Afterall, isn't dependency on foreign manufacturing as bad as dependency on foreign oil?
Very true, its not like Apple doesn't have a fat margin in its hardware that they could stand to loose a bit of to have things built in the same place they're 'designed'.
I think this is a huge win for both Intel and the US. We could definitely use a few more companies CREATING jobs here rather than eliminating them.
Wow. I believe it's appropriate for us to politely nod and say quietly as a nation, "Thanks, Intel." Now if you can truly put that $7b to work domestically (not shipping in _too_ many smaller bits of construction/supplies), you'll be the hero to many people here at home. Hell, even going overseas you'll make many eager new friends. (/rave)
Meanwhile the elephants on the hill are trying to squelch some of the science, education and tech pushes in the stimulus. Perhaps it's actually just a "recovery" and not a "stimulus" since the emphasis seems to be more on ass-saving in old markets. Doing this instead of trying to push our country hard at being a leader in next-gen products and services. I'm sure the world will continue paying our top-dog companies inflated salaries to carry out tasks anyone with a high school education can perform. Why bother retooling to make better use of our potential in manufacturing and innovation to keep up with expectation and perpetuate the return on investment? (/dumb, pissy rant)
I'm surprised no one pointed out the fact that the picture on this article is of a very old BIOS Flash chip from 10 years ago. That's some good stuff there. Just think how small that chip would be if it was built on 32 nm instead of XX um?
As for Intel investing money in American FABs, that's great. But did everyone forget that Intel just announced they are shutting down older FABs which is going to result in American jobs lost? Maybe some of those jobs will be picked up with the new FABs, maybe not....