Betty,
Thanks for that link to a really enjoyable piece of writing. Very funny and very informative as well.
It sounds like it will take a very large, geographically close earthquake to disrupt long term production at Hsinchu.
I noticed the following in the text...
Even more remarkable was the fact that work on UMC's new fab facilities continued pretty much according to plan. Three weeks after the quake, work crews began moving production equipment into 8F, UMC Group's newest fab, ahead of schedule. If all goes well, Fab 8F will begin trial production of 0.25-micron and 0.18-micron, eight-in. wafers in December, and should be cranking out in excess of 20,000 wafers per month by the end of 2000. Ultimately the facility, which has a design capacity of 40,000 wafers per month, will migrate to 0.15-micron and eventually 0.13-micron process technology. The newest foundry facility, Fab 8C, which has a design capacity of 30,000 wafers per month, is expected to begin trial production in the first quarter of next year.
I wonder if SanDisk has any interests in 8F or 8C. They certainly have enough cash on hand to consider increasing their investment in UMC although the concentration of manufacturing is Taiwan is a bit nerve-wracking.
Ausdauer
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