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AMD's Fab 30 Revealed
Harkids writes "AnandTech posted a
sweet article about a recent trip to AMD's newest chip manufacturing plant,
Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany. The article is more than just a walk around the building;
it includes juicy details of AMD's microprocessor manufacturing process, innovations,
and even has some Hammer info in it. A good read if you are interested in CPUs
or simply what AMD has up their sleeve."
"There is one thing that's for sure; AMD has not done a very good job of telling the public exactly what they're capable of from a manufacturing standpoint. Intel has been talking about their manufacturing capabilities for quite some time now and has left the market with the impression that they are the only leader in the x86 manufacturing world. It is a shame because in reality, AMD has quite a few accomplishments of their own to talk about but it's just a matter of getting them to loosen up and let you all in."
It is nice of AMD not to scream about what they can do in their labs, but actually rely on their current products.
The combination of the Fab and the Dresden Design Center (DDC) was said to require a $2.3 million investment, with close to $2M already spent...
At that price, any Tom Dick or Harriet could set one up!
Of course, the next sentence makes it clear they're talking BILLIONS, not millions:
and the remaining $300M due to be used by the end of 2003. For an advanced microprocessor fabrication facility like Fab 30 this is the going rate for start-up costs, which is a major part of the reason why there are only two big competitors in the desktop CPU market; with such high barriers to entry, it's very difficult to become a mass market competitor in the CPU business.
SCO, Microsoft, P2P, what's your hot button?
Then there was talk of reviving it in 2000, only for the entire thing to be delayed once again until 2002, when the need for general expansion made the development of a new plant in Europe critical anyway. The old plans were dusted off, and now AMD has the plant it deserves.
The article says:
AMD was founded in 1969 and the Dresden Fab began mass production in 1999 thus covering 30 years, which is where the '30' in Fab 30 comes from.
The fact that the Dresden plant has been producing chips since 1999 indicates that you are just making up your facts in the hopes of getting some suckers' mod points.
Further your claims of 16384 48 bit registers are patently absurd. The x86 chipset has eight registers. Nowhere near the thousands you claim for this alleged Tombstone project, which as others have already indicated Google cannot substantiate.
Moderators, please think before you press the moderate button. This poster is clearly whoring for karma.