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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dan3 who wrote (153941)	1/5/2002 8:43:07 PM
From: semiconeng	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

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

To: Dan3 who wrote (153941)	1/6/2002 7:17:38 AM
From: Dave	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Dan, I think they may have built more than they need for next year, certainly they've built enough. Intel's strategy has always been "Build it and they will come". But FABs for CPU production generally need to be almost completely rebuilt every 2 years. This is more semantics, but I believe your term "rebuilt" is the wrong choice of words. How about "upgraded"? If Intel never upgraded their FABs, they would be utilizing a .5u process, or even higher. These upgrades allow uPs to become faster and allow Intel higher manufacturing efficiency and allowing the engineers to place more transistors on a chip.