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Next-Generation Chip Fabs
PaulBu writes "As reported in EE Times, a new IBM $2.5B fab will be the first one to 'produce chips using all three of the sophisticated technologies on the industry's bleeding edge: low-k dielectrics, copper interconnect and silicon-on-insulator based transistors' on 300mm wafers. And it runs entirely on Linux! Quote from the article: 'The state of automation in Building 323 is such that 20,000 sensors are used to track wafer lots in front-opening unified pods that are transported from one tool to the next on rails using linear induction motors. The setup resembles an intricate monorail system tuned to millimeter-precision specs. A central control system monitors all stations and tracks wafer lots via 802.11 wireless communications.'"
For they will wreck havoc with your 802.11 control infrastructure.
"This is the first fab whose IT infrastructure is all Linux-based, controlled by some 1,700 1-GHz microprocessors able to access some 600 terabytes of data."
;-)
I need one of these setups in my garage
"Michael, I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing - and it was everything that I thought it could be."
The setup resembles an intricate monorail system tuned to millimeter-precision specs
Um, just millimeter? You'd think where chips have components measured in nanometers, that you'd need just a bit more than millimeter precision. Oops, that transistor's off a bit again! i wonder why? :P
What about someone sitting in the parking lot with a laptop and an antenna, who hops onto the network and sends fake data to the control system, screwing up all the chips?
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"tuned to millimeter-precision specs"
.001mm specs.
Umm... since when is a millimeter a big unit of measurement? My CAR DOOR is built to millimeter precision specs. The engine had bloody well better be
Silly author... don't quote units when they're meaningless.
-- IANAEG - I am not an elder god.
No, they're doing MS one better. Software being a service is just so 90s. In the coming century, hardware itself will be a service.
IBM knew that they couldn't come up with this hardware plan alone, so they bought a phone company. Remember when you had to rent your phone and it was illegal to connect a phone that they didn't own to their lines? I mean, forget about activiating your OS. Can you see an automatic deduction from checking every time you boot up?
Wait, then why is IBM pushing Linux? If they were really going with a pay-per-boot plan, they'd be pushing MS. Either they didn't think this plan through all the way, or I'm reading it incorrectly.
I spent a year in Iraq looking for WMD and all I found was this lousy sig.
They spent 2.5 BILLION bucks on this fab and the only thing they could think of naming it was "Building 323". That's so weak. How about SupaFab? Fab:TNG? Absolutely Fab-ulous? MegaFab2k2? It's not like this is a super secret government base like Area 51. Come on IBM, have some flair.
-B
There'd be an episode about Lucy at the chip fab plant, and the conveyor belt would get out of control, and she'd ruin millions of dollars in chips. It'd be hilarious.
Anyone remember the Denver airport baggage handling system fiasco?
"IBM" and "Flair" are two words that just don't go together.
Oops. I was wrong Google says there are 12,100 hits.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
What are the odds that a chip manufacturing plant this big has converted their entire warehouse building into a giant faraday cage?
Hell, I would.
Yeah, who on earth would make a decision based on whats better? Whats the engineering world coming to?
"Old man yells at systemd"
"The setup resembles an intricate monorail system tuned to millimeter-precision specs."
That's right, a monorail, just like the ones in Ogdenville, North Haverbrook and Brockway!
John Kelly of IBM:"Today we can't even imagine the products that will be produced as a result of this new state-of-the-art fab.". Well, I can. Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!