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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Duker who wrote (29162)	3/23/1999 5:47:00 PM
From: Katherine Derbyshire	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

>>... I would argue that you should not include National is S. Portland in your rebuttal because empty fabs do not produce emissions!<g><< <g> Nope, it still belongs, because National had to pass environmental muster in order to build it, whether they use it or not. >>What is the scuttlebutt on 300mm? How about you take on overall industry conditions?<< Industry conditions are improving steadily. Nothing spectacular yet, but they've definitely turned the corner. 300mm is still more or less in limbo. Shrinks are going so well that the economic rationale for 300mm is iffy--you can get more devices per wafer by shrinking more cheaply than by changing wafer sizes. With that said, though, the announced players (Siemens, IBM, Intel) are proceeding with pilot lines. IMO, that's because building a pilot line is relatively cheap insurance against a sudden lithography roadblock to shrinks, or a sudden change in market conditions. If you have a pilot line, you can decide whether or not to build a fab. Without a pilot line, you're stuck. Katherine