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To: Kenya AA who wrote (4245)	9/21/1999 7:28:00 AM
From: Mao II	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12663

K & Thread: Quake rocks Taiwan; chip makers assess potential damage to foundries Semiconductor Business News (09/20/99, 05:25:07 PM EDT) TAIPEI, Taiwan -- A strong earthquake jolted Taiwan early Tuesday morning, resulting in structural damage to buildings and massive power outages, but the island's chip manufacturing plants appeared to escape harm, according to initial reports collected by SBN and its sister publication, Electronic Buyers' News. The lack of power appeared to be causing semiconductor manufacturers the biggest problem several hours after the quake struck at 1:47 a.m. Taipei time. The quake measured 7.6 on the Richter scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. News wires reported major structural damage in Taipei and at least five people killed by the quake in the city. Immediately after the quake, semiconductor managers worldwide attempted to find out if Taiwan's growing silicon foundry industry had suffered any major damage. About two-thirds of the world's third-party foundry capacity is located in Taiwan, said the U.S.-based Fabless Semiconductor Association, citing data presented at last week's Semicon Taiwan conference. The quake was reportedly centered in Taiwan's Natou province, located about 80 miles south-southeast of the island's major science park in Hsinchu. A U.S. spokesman for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.--the world's largest silicon foundry--said TSMC's facilities in Hsinchu appeared to be undamaged by the quake. "All of TSMC facilities have been stabilized and all employees are safe," said the spokesman at TSMC USA in San Jose. "We're waiting to see if the Science Park [in Hsinchu] comes back up," said the TSMC spokesman, referring to electrical power. More details are expected later Tuesday morning in Taiwan, when officials can assess the situation. Foundry service provider United Microelectronics Corp., also based in Hsinchu, was attempting to assess damage at its facilities. UMC's U.S. operation in Sunnyvale, Calif., indicated that the initial assessment indicates no disruption to the company's wafer-processing lines. "We talked to one of the process engineers there, who said things appeared to be fine, although he's a pretty junior-level guy, so I wouldn't say that's the official report," said Jim Ballingall, vice president of worldwide marketing at UMC, based in Sunnyvale. "The power went out as you might expect; however, back-up power was working, which is a good sign." Back-up power will allow UMC to keep key tools, such as furnace annealing equipment, up and running. When it lost power during a huge outage that afflicted the island in July, UMC lost only about 0.5% of all in-process wafers, Ballingall said. The company expects to provide more details in a statement later today. Meanwhile, word out of chipset maker Via Technologies Inc.'s U.S. headquarters in Fremont, Calif., was that damage was slight. "We have not much at this time to report, but there hasn't been much damage at the facility," said Jonathan Chang, director of operations and sales at the company. Chang said he was more concerned about the status of the company's foundry partners, which include TSMC and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc., Taiwan's largest test and assembly house. Chang said Via will have a better understanding of the extent of the damage by tomorrow. U.S. fabless semiconductor companies immediately began calling Taiwan foundry suppliers after hearing of the quake, which occurred around 12:47 p.m. California time today. "We're now attempting to get information back to our members," said Jodi Shelton, executive director of the Fabless Semiconductor Association, located in Dallas. "We hope to know more later this evening." "The good news seems to be that there is no structural damage being reported by the foundries--in particular TSMC, but the bad news is the power outages," she added. Reporting provided by EBN's Mark Hachman and Andrew MacLellan in Silicon Valley, and SBN's Bill McIlvaine in New York and J. Robert Lineback in Dallas.