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."

Comments

Nice to hear

[e8johan]

"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.

Sure is a cheap fab

[sboyko]

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.