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Technology Stocks : Cymer (CYMI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NW Bronco Fan who wrote (11053)	12/5/1997 2:13:00 PM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25960

SIA funding............ and . . . its CYMI against DARPA's XRL program............ techweb.cmp.com A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. Story posted at 11 a.m. EST/8 a.m. PST, 12/5/97 SIA launches $60 million program for IC technology R&D in Focus Centers By Jack Robertson WASHINGTON--A long-delayed $60 million-per-year U.S. government-industry research initiative to aid the development of next-generation electronics technology is being launched this week by the Semiconductor Industry Association. Last year, the SIA pledged to provide half of the funding needed to establish Focus Centers at university campuses. Recently, the U.S. Department of Defense and the semiconductor equipment industry each pledged to fund 25% of the project cost. The first two Focus Centers will work on chip design and interconnect technology. The sites have not yet been determined. Paolo Gargini, Intel Corp.'s director of technology strategy, said the Focus Centers will help the electronics industry meet the goals set down in the SIA's most recent National Technology Roadmap, which calls for 0.05-micron feature sizes in DRAMs and 0.035-micron gate lengths in microprocessors by 2012 (see summary of the new roadmap from Dec. 1 news). The joint government-industry initiative hopes in the near future to launch Focus Centers that will work on lithography, metrology, and materials. Focus Centers were first proposed by a government-industry task force, the National Semiconductor Technology Council, as a way of stimulating university research and involvement and bolstering industry resources. Once again, the chip industry is tapping federal funds, albeit a modest amount initially. With some fanfare, chip industry consortium Sematech, based in Austin, Tex., three years ago weaned itself of a $100 million-per-year federal contribution. It is now solely supported by member companies. Meanwhile, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency continues to contribute $40 million to $60 million annually to develop advanced lithography. Most of this money is being spent on X-ray lithography that has not been endorsed by chip manufacturers. The chip industry already contributes approximately $30 million annually for university research through the Semiconductor Research Corp. That money is spread across a broad spectrum of projects. The Focus Centers are aimed at concentrating efforts on technologies that are considered essential to leading-edge devices.