Brian - Re: "An acquaintance who works at the Aloha, OR Intel R&D division ( not a janitor, he DOES R&D ) mentioned to me yesterday that INTC was "pulling in" 0.18 by six months, meaning advancing the transition. "
Intel has publicly released information - confusing information - concerning this.
The 0.18 micron process, according to Intel, will be introduced in the first half of 1999 instead of the second half.
Note - this could be as little as one or two days - June 30, 1999 instead of July 1, 1999 ! However, I think Intel was "implying" at least a 3 month "pull-in".
The confusing issue is that Intel is still talking about 0.18 micron PRODUCTS for the second half of 1999 - Coppermine and Cascades are two often-mentioned products.
Realistically, if production on 0.18 micron products is BEGUN in the second quarter of 1999, the actual products will probably take one quarter to percolate through the wafer fabs (6 to 8 weeks), wafer sort, package assembly, test and Module assembly and final test.
I have heard that Coppermine - the 0.18 micron version of Katmai - will be ready for tape out by the middle of Q199 - so the 0.18n micron process will have to be close to production worthy by that time - or before.
As for Cymer - they supply the Excimer Laser Light systems to most of the DUV Stepper Stepper/Scanner manufacturers - SVGL, Nikon, Canon, ASML - so I would assume that as a "component" manufacturer, their name might not be "recognizable" to everybody.
Paul |
