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To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (20687)	1/22/1999 2:13:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 25960

Still more on Intel's manufacturing roadmap. It looks like they'll need more of those "DUV bulbs"............ newsbytes.com Intel Changing Manufacturing Process 22 Jan 1999, 12:05 PM CST By Matt Hines, Newsbytes. SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., Intel Corp. [NASDAQ:INTC] will move to a new manufacturing process this year which allows for a greater number of microprocessors to be made from each silicon wafer it uses. The chip market bellwether also indicated that it will not begin marketing chips made from copper materials until sometime in 2000. Arriving in 1999 will be the .18-micron manufacturing technique which replaces the firm's existing .25-micron process. The first chips borne of the new building method will be the upcoming Pentium III series for desktop PCs, which are slated to arrive during the first half of this year. According to Intel, the company has been changing its manufacturing techniques on a regular schedule of about once every 2 years. The next step for Intel will be to begin mass producing processors which feature copper technology, which is expected to allow for even greater chip speeds. Intel competitor IBM Corp. is bringing copper-based processor technology to market this year. "We've been working with copper for several years and we weren't surprised to see IBM go ahead and move to copper," said Mark Bohr, Intel's director of process architecture and integration technology. "But when we looked at bringing copper in for this next generation of chips it was clear that it won't be competitive until we move on to .13-micron manufacturing." Bohr said that utilizing copper this year would have resulted in higher overhead costs and lower chip yields for Intel due to the "immaturity" of semiconductor equipment used in the copper manufacturing process. The executive said that change to copper will require Intel to replace two-thirds of its manufacturing equipment, incurring large expenses. While the tools used in creating the lithography and printing on the processors will remain the same, machines needed to etch and polish the chips will have to be replaced. Intel has been able to retain about 70 percent of its manufacturing equipment as it has moved from generation to generation, using silicon and aluminum. However, Bohr said that adding copper manufacturing capabilities will not interfere with ongoing operations. Intel will use fabrication plants which are currently not in use to introduce copper, while its existing plants continue to churn out processors built on .25-micron and .18-micron, until those technologies are phased out. According to Intel, the ability to retain a majority of its equipment in the transition to .18-micron will allow for rapid adoption of the process. Bohr indicated that the firm will have multiple fabrication plants ready to build this year, with a majority of those locations moving from older .35-micron manufacturing operations. Shifting to .18-micron also opens up the door for Intel's processors to push the gigahertz (GHz) barrier. Executives from the firm estimated that .18-micron will easily deliver 32-bit and 64-bit chips above 800 megahertz (MHz) and indicated that other breakthroughs in manufacturing could push .18-micron technologies over the GHz mark. All of the products built using .18-micron will also feature integrated level 2 cache, Intel reported. Intel's Web site is intel.com Reported By Newsbytes News Network, newsbytes.com 12:05 CST (19990122/WIRES PC, BUSINESS/)