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Strategies & Market Trends : Zeev's Turnips - No Politics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ajtj99 who wrote (5854)	11/15/2001 10:04:53 AM
From: James Calladine	Respond to of 99280

POST FROM STORAGE REVIEW THREAD: <<<Is Intel in trouble on 12-inch shift? 'Difficulties' in Intel fabs By Mike Magee, 15/11/2001 10:58:02 BST WHAT DO YOU DO when times are tough and you're in business? Well, one thing you can do is leave piles of invoices in the in-tray and stave off demands from suppliers for as long as possible. This leads to what we've decided to call the Denver or possibly the Colorado Springs Crunch - a situation that Intel apparently ran into earlier this year, when contractors issued "liens" against the corporation as a result of bills that were, apparently, unpaid. (See Intel accused of failure to pay bills and Intel sued again over bills). All sensible and some insensible businesses delay invoices from time to time because of cash flow, and there's nothing unusual about suppliers getting up in arms about this and threatening or bringing legal action. But there are also some difficulties when you are an enormous supplier of equipment to chip manufacturers - normally the way to proceed because of the high cost of this machinery is to get half the money up front before you start making it. If a company, say, is building kit for Intel for 300mm (12-inch) wafers, it doesn't want to overextend itself by doing so unless it gets some money from its customers. It appears that Intel's ambitious schedule to convert to such wafer sizes is now off target, according to sources close to the company. According to the source, it takes 11 months to build these lines, three months to install them, and another 12 months before you get respectable yields for the lines. This all costs a fantastic amount of money and time. The Pentium 4 die size is 2.28 times bigger than the Pentium III and so it's important for Intel to make the major shift to Northwood, and to .13 micron, just as soon as it possibly claim. According to the interview Newsfactor recently published with Intel CEO Craig Barrett, Intel has three sites that produce .13 micron technology, and a fourth site is on its way - all in the US. Israel and Ireland will go .13 micron too. But there's no mention in the piece of 300mm (12-inch) fabs, although earlier this year we reported that Intel will have four 12-inchers soon, while Taiwanese foundries TSMC and UMC may be involved in investing in the projects. So how will Intel square the circle? The new 300mm fabs will cost billions, suppliers would like some money up front, and it's important for the firm to move to 300mm. Not everything is well at the Intel fabs, we have learned from an insider. The copper interconnect technology, which appears in the .13 micron Tualatins and in the up-and-coming Northwood and Prestonia parts, is causing yields to be less than the company had hoped, while there is also excessive leakage on the same process. Intel may well have to firm up those deals with UMC, Chartered and TSMC to keep the home fires burning bright. >>> Also, relative to my friend's tiny business, I did not suggest that it was useful for the purposes you had in mind! Namaste! Jim