Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Behind the Closed Doors of AMD's Chip Production

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the silicon-wafers-don't-taste-so-good dept.

rokali writes "Tom's Hardware is running an article on AMD's chipmaking procedure, plants, and future. Check out the pictures of Fab 36, their new plant slated to open in 2006, which will put of the next generation of 65nm chips. From the article: 'Currently, AMD's devices in Dresden are still produced on 200 mm wafers; the new APM 3.0 using 300 mm wafers won't be ramped up until Fab 36 opens. Production startup at the new facility is slated for the beginning of 2006, at which point the company will have invested an additional $2.5 billion.'"

8 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Question by Blapto · · Score: 3, Informative

    The EU will give funding and tax breaks to large inward investment. Computer chip designing is a huge added value system (cheapish raw materials/chip) so it produces a large benefit for the EU. You'll find the same going on in most countries.

  2. New toys aren't cheap by tofucubes · · Score: 4, Informative

    better have a big wallet...looks like a lot of geeks will be window shopping... the low-end Opteron 865 chip will cost $1,514 USD dual-core Opteron 870 will run $2,149, with the Opteron 875 priced at $2,649 http://www.betanews.com/article/DualCore_AMD_Opter on_Prices_Leak/1113922595

    --
    Some people believe 1-1=3 and for the sake of being politically correct, we should respect their differences
    1. Re:New toys aren't cheap by CajunArson · · Score: 3, Informative

      Opteron 865 chip...
      If you want to build a 4/8 way machine (which is the only reason to buy from the 8x series) $1500 is not a bad price for a chip at all, and $2149 for the dual-core is only ~40% markup! If you want cheap.. buy a normal PC, after all the extra CPU's won't make your games faster and many of the server boards that take these chips don't even bother with high-speed graphics ports since they're designed to be servers. Opterons are cheap (err.. inexpensive) compared to Itaniums or other 64 bit architectures out there.

      --
      AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
    2. Re:New toys aren't cheap by greg_barton · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is FUD. The 865 is not "low end" no matter what the article says. It's the chip that's capable of 8 way SMP, as opposed to the 2 and 1 way. Those are cheaper.

      Here is the source article for the price leak from DigiTimes. The prices for the 1 and 2 level chips are much less:

      165 chip: $637
      265 chip: $851

      Don't believe the FUD.

  3. Re:down the drain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    did. 3Q 2004. $43.8million net profit.

  4. Re:Question by Zocalo · · Score: 4, Informative
    Simple logistics; just as many tech companies congregated in Silicon Valley, a similar situation exists in Dresden. Going from chip design to the actual fabrication requires a considerable amount of support infrastructure much of which is done by external companies. For more complex devices it will typically take a few months at least from finalising the design to the first chips actually rolling out of the fab.

    I know for a fact that not even Intel does everything in house, so it's highly unlikely that AMD does. Essentially there are just far too many different types of highly complex technologies and processes involved for one company to do it all. Having as much of that infrastructure located in the same general vicinity can save a lot of time, money and aggravation. Which is why we have manufacturing sites in both Silicon Valley and Dresden, amongst others...

    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  5. Re:Here's a question... by El · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's not yellow. The picture is shot through a window, which has a UV-blocking coating on it. This makes everything appear yellow. Apparently certain frequencies of light are bad for the wafers.

    --

    "Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney

  6. Re:Question by Bender_ · · Score: 4, Informative

    What makes Dresden so interesting to AMD?

    Dresden was one of the centers of GDR microelectronics. The GDR was the technolocial leader in microelectronics of the entire east block and the gourvernment poured billions into it. However, COCOM succeeded in keeping them technologically way behing the western countries. Nevertheless, Dresden was the birthplace of Honeckers infamous 1 mbit (scroll down) chip.

    After the reunificiation there was a huge skilled workforce in microelectronics readily available in Dresden. This was, and is, aside from gouvernment incentives a major reason to build fabs there. Siemens (and now Infineon) were the first to take advantage of this. AMD came later.

    The fabs have been extremely successful so far. Infineons fab was the first to have mass production on 300mm wafers world wide. AMDs fab managed to ramp the copper/low-k metallization process in record time.

    Btw. some of the GDR semiconductor companies still live on in form of ZMD (Dresden), X-FAB (in Erfurt) and the IHP (Frankfurt/Oder). However they mostly specialize in niche products now.

    From the Article:
    Check out the pictures of Fab 36, their new plant slated to open.

    You wish. There is no photo showing the actual production at an AMD site. One photo shows some support level, another photo does actually show the production of an entirely different company.