I think they may have built more than they need for next year, certainly they've built enough.
But FABs for CPU production generally need to be almost completely rebuilt every 2 years.
---Now Now, that's not true Dan. Fabs are built to conform to a Cleanliness Level. State of the art is Class 1, which means there can be no more that 1 particle of dirt, 1 micron in size in 1 cubic centimeter of air. Class 10, Class 100, Class 1000, all follow the same rules.
---In addition, generally more than 50% of the Process Tools can be reused in the new process, assuming that the wafer size doesn't chsange. It might interest you to know that Fab6 closed after being in service for 20 years. The Fab itself was never "rebuilt".
It may be that once the .13 generation is in full swing, Intel will be able to close several of those FABs and won't have the costs of upgrading them to .09 and SOI.
---I don't think they're going to close any 0.18u, or 0.25u Fabs, as they are all Class 1 Fabs. I don't know of any 0.35u production going on. Fab 7/9, the current oldest Fabs are being re-equipped for 300mm.
Semi |
