Slashdot Mirror
Intel On A Building Spree
Anonymous Cowherd writes "Intel will build two new facilities - a new chip plant and a new wafer plant. The new chip plant will be built in Kiryat Gat, Israel, continuing Intel's 30 years operation in the country. Intel already owns several facilities in Israel, both for R&D and for manufacturing. Previous developments of Intel Israel are the 8088 processor, MMX and the Centrino mobile platform. The new wafer plant will be built in an existing facility at Chandler, Arizona, and will feature 45nm technology - 1/1,333th the width of a human hair. The technology is two generations ahead of the current 90nm. Intel's Arizona operation includes production of the Pentium processor family and related chipsets."
Why don't they just takeover IBM's facilities?
"Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Thoreau
Thirth? I believe this should be 1/1,333rd.
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." [Thomas Jefferson]
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Seriously...
If you buy a laptop in Saudi Arabia, do they pop it open to make sure that CPU/centrino chipset wasn't made in Israel?
Conversely, do the Israelis install tags in their chips to make them easier to find? Maybe that way they can sink the next USS Liberty just a little faster.
Don't you just love it when a number as incomprehensible as 45nm is finally put in a graspable framework such as 1/1,333 the width of a human hair? It's like the insight given by the statement that a mole of marshmellows would cover the US 512 miles deep.
"1/1,333th the width of a human hair" Will the newly hired employees be able to find the plant?
"The technology is two generations ahead of the current 90nm."
And it will take 2 generations to build.
There is truth in humor.
The new wafer plant will be built in an existing facility at Chandler, Arizona, and will feature 45nm technology - 1/1,333th the width of a human hair.
/sarcasm
Yay for science writers using numbers in dumb ways. So glad that all humans have all the same hair thicknesses, and they're all about 59.99 microns. According to various sources (and I've measured hair diameters myself), they range from 200microns down to about 50 microns. So the article should have stated that the 45 nm technology is somewhere between 9/10000th and 9/40000th the width of a human hair. Wouldn't that be much more impressive?
So much for the Made In The USA sticker.
They built a huge plan in Colorado right before the Tech Crash. The the crash came they abandoned the plant (the most expensive building ever in the state). Is this building unusable? It was supposed to be a "nest generation" chip plant after all!
Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration, which is why engineers sometimes smell really bad.
Maybe they'll actually finish these buildings, unlike the big development center they started in Austin and then left unfinished. A big, half-constructed building sitting in the middle of downtown for the last 5 years.
And the city council gave them millions in tax breaks to leave an eyesore downtown...
What I'd like to know is whos hair they use as this baseline, or is all human hair the same thickness?
Where's the waffle factory? We need to know!
According to google satellite, there is no fab plant in Chandler, Az!!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
What is the estimate of how much water these plants will consume? Do the communities in which these plants are being put understand what the impact will be? Chip fabs usually consume lots of water.
Links from google:
1 2 3
I live down the street from a giant Intel plant in Hillsboro, Oregon. When the weather is cool and I feel like I need the extra exercise, I walk the dog around the perimeter. It is a touch under four miles round trip and has its own wetlands area where beaver, ospreys, and coyotes live.
Immediately across the street is some more Intel land. It has Intel no trespassing signs, but is . . . well, not vacant. It is a clover field. Sometimes you can see tractors plowing it up or harvesting the stuff. I guess Intel leases the land to a farmer.
Around two of the sides are great big walls of blackberry bushes. These are considered weeds out there, but produce great whopping crops of blackberries. I picked about three gallons last year, enough to make three pies and twelve jars of jam. Technically, one of the white SUV security vans could bust me for picking the berries, but it seems a shame just to leave them for the birds.
1) Build billion dollar fabs in places most likely to be bombed (e.g. Israel, Dublin, London)
2) Wait for attack
3) Collect billion dollar insurance settlements
4) Profit!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
If you look at the Intel code names on their road maps, you'll see that they usually name their chips after rivers. Most of these rivers are in the western United States, but occasionally you'll see Israeli river names (Banias, for example). Grouping these names together, you can tell that Intel Israel usually works on low-power chips and integrated chipset features (SSE, Centrino, ...). That is, the heart of Intel cores is done in the U.S. They send their first generation designs to Israel for improvement and integration.
Intel, as well as numerous other chip makers, have had a long tradition of development in Israel. IBM, DEC (back when they existed), Freescale all have research centers in Israel. This is due to the large amount of English-speaking skilled engineers and their relatively low cost compared to US engineers. This is the first I've heard of actually making the chips there. Germany is usually the preferred site for fabbing in the European region.
Actually it's not clear if they are building anything new in Israel, as the Updated article mentions.
Same reason the republikrats left microsoft alone and didn't bitchslap them into oblivion after they lost that fine lawsuit vs the antitrust laws that this same gov't set forth years and years ago. I guess signatures and justice aren't as important as corporate campaign funding and bribes. Long live Amerika. Boy are we fucked!!
" What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
Israel and US are BIG allies. There wouldn't be a modern Israel if it weren't for the US... or a modern US if it weren't for Israeli innovation (they be some smart folks over there). Any tentions between the two are minor compared to their relationship. Intel knows this. To them its just like opening a plant in the USA - but making use of a pretty smart scientific base.
_Vishal www.squad9.com
rivers, lakes and high water tables make for incriminating telltales when highly toxic industrial waste is covertly buried.
As reported Israel won over Intel after agreeing to pony up a $ 525 million grant, about 15 per cent of the $ 3.5 billion initial project cost.
In return ofcourse, Israel would get hi-tech jobs, supporting industries, and expertize.
I wish our politicians would look into future and invest wisely as Israel did.
- Sh!t
I like how there are AMD ads on the page about Intel.
Also, I think the investment in Israel is a great idea. They are a strong ally and more investment will only help the cooperation.
but making use of a pretty smart scientific base. - are you implying that the scientific base in the USA is not smart enough to open another Intel plant? (I live in Canada, I am just asking.)
I don't believe that. I think this has to do more with that half a billion dollar grant Intel will be getting from the government of Israel and possible tax breaks.
You can't handle the truth.
The i8088 was developed in the US, the i8087 (the fp math coprocessor) was developed in Israel.
Mod Parent Up, just to annoy that annoying 2*2*3*75011 guy. :P
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
This anouncement makes it sound that the two fabs are making different things, chips and wafers. However all chips or made on wafers so in this context a wafer fab is also a chip fab and visa versa.
Why do people write about things without knowing what they talk about? Or at least try to find out, before writing something down.
Previous developments of Intel Israel are the 8088 processor...
For historical purposes it is worth noting here that the microprocessor was actually invented in San Antonio, Texas by a company called Datapoint (formerly Computer Terminal Corporation).
The architecture of Intel's 8080 processor was virtually identical to Datapoint's 8008 which preceded it by a couple of years.
"I don't believe that. I think this has to do more with that half a billion dollar grant Intel will be getting from the government of Israel and possible tax breaks."
Tax breaks which would not be possible if the U.S. stopped financially (and militarily)supporting the State of Israel. So technically, the U.S. government through its foreign policy is supporting this outsourcing. However, considering the power of the pro-Israel political action committee(s), I doubt this will be mentioned the next time Democrats raise the issue of outsourcing against the President and his economic policies. Instead, they'll bash India and China (and score approval points while doing so in the polls) while approving the continuation of such aid that leads to virtual job losses amongst the tech community here in the States. And consequently, more American college students will elect for a major in physical education over computer sciences.
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
It was the 8086 that was designed in Israel. The 8086 was a cheaper version of the 8088. For instance, it used an 8-bit data bus rather than a 16-bit bus (but internally it was the same). It was chosen for the IBM PC, due to these cost advantages.
Is the Israeli plant the one that would have gone to Ireland if the EU hadn't kickup about Irish government subsidies?
"Why does Intel always seem to locate it's new fab plants in deserts where water is scarce (they have a fab in Albuquerque as well), when fabs guzzle jillions of gallons of water a day? Israel isn't exactly a rainforest either..."
:)
Using your post's logic, perhaps Intel should locate a plant at Antartica and consequently prevent the worldwide sea level rise caused by the melting away of Antartica's ice. That would be good corporate citizenship in practice...
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
The official Intel page states otherwise
http://www.intel.com/jobs/israel/sites/haifa.htm
The pioneering 8088 processor, Intel® math coprocessors, the i860® XP processor, Ethernet communication chips, and cache and memory controllers are a few of the more than 50 products designed in IDC (Israel Development Center)
So it sounds like both of them were developed there
They're temporarily adding 300 employees in Albuquerque for testing... Place called "Fab 7 Test".
:(
Like our Third World State needs 300 temp jobs to get folks' hopes up.
Mark
A fab, or other super high tech factories, would appear to be much more vulnerable. I wonder how this will play out in the wars of the future.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
Well, it sounded like their main Israel facility is in Haifa. That's in the north of the country, along the coast, and not as desert-like as the southern parts we always think of.
Also, the location would put them near Technion University, so they'd have the academic research base to support their operation as well.
Here's the article in our local paper:
m
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/apintel07-25-05.ht
Mark
So, in several countries, 1,333 is understood as 1.333 -- Would the US be one of those countries, or would France be one of those countries? Now I'm really confused. I guess I should find out by measuring my hair.
Sorry, no.
There are several U.S. military contractors, and even sectors of our gov't that are prohibited from using Checkpoint firewalls because Checkpoint is Israeli and closed source. Too much potential for abuse.
This is just one example of many.
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Qiyrat Gat seems to be about 10 miles from the West Bank, and 15 miles from the Gaza border.
Dude, there's no spot in Israel that isn't at most 25 miles from some pissed off Arab. It's a pretty small country, about 80% the size of Maryland, give or take a settlement.
not even trying...that is, of course, unless you enjoy failing mierably, and sounding rediculous 1,333 is no more or less comprehensible than 45*10^-9 except only in certain frames of reference that are optimized for the comprehensibility of said number. The size of a hair is not one of them.
Looks like they have quite a massive plant in Arizona. See Google map.
Plenty of housing nearby for the workers too. It's almost like a whole town for them.
Sparks:Gadget:Beer Maker
Considering the Banias and Dothan cores (Pentium M? you know, the reason Apple switched to Intel?) were designed by Intel Israel, I think it will work out pretty well. Intel's Israeli division is also working on Yonah, a CPU architecture designed from the ground up to be dual-core, with the power consumption of the Dothan.
I don't think people do relate to it. In other news, the question was brought up as to whether people might want a fire that can be fitted nasally.
...usually that would be *take* a settlement.
Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week, at 7.00pm.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
I'm not a military strategist, hell I couldn't even get up before 8.am(for a bugle call), but "wafer" and "chip" fabs will be, to the next big conflict, what ball-bearing factories were in WWII.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
1. Hire Americans in Arazona
2. Layoff everybody and outsource their positions
3. PROFIT!
- I voted for Nintendo and against Bush
The 8088 had the 8 bit bus. 8088 is to 80886 as 386sx is to 386dx :).
Whoops -- you're right!
And I believe you meant to say "8088 is to 8086" -- but then, who actually checks their posts these days? :-)
Are they building two fabs? Or are they building a single fab in the overlap between Arizona and Israel? Will the Arizona fab produce chips, or just wafers of silicon?
/. post says two plants, wafers in Arizona, chips in Israel. One Reuters article says that Israel says Intel will build a plant there, making goodness knows what. The other article says that Intel will make chips in Arizona, and are "no comment"ing on the Israel plant.
The
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
How can you tell that precisely an average human hair width? 45nm*1133=50895 nm, or 50.895 micrometers? Damn, the 5 nm of that 50895 is a single molecule size!
Or you just sampled one from your scalp and measured it?
nanotech.republika.pl
I found an article on About.com That says somethign totally different about who invented what.. And several other articles say even more different things. Seeing as most of these sites are "accurate" it seems we're all getting the wrong kind of information.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
According to The Inquirer, they aren't:
A rizona/2100-1006_3-5802816.html?tag=nefd.top
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24894
http://news.com.com/Intel+to+build+next+plant+in+
At least we know they arn't doing just it to save a quick buck.
Remember folks, slashdot doesn't have a -1 "disagree" moderation!
As I've looked at how geopolitics have changed over the last three decades, it looks less and less likely that we'll ever have another all-out conflict between large nation states where production capacity is an issue. Conflicts of the future will be between people groups and ideologies that cut across geographical and political boundaries, and technology and military hardware will not decide them. Many military writers have been working this out, calling it 4th-Generation Warfare. You'll notice that politicians and upper-level military leaders still put their faith in industrial might and technology, but that's because that's where the power centers are, not because those things will keep a nation safe.
Why...no one here mentioned the nazis...
Oops....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Great! Kosher Chips!
Thus, since Zionism is a belief that advocates the oppression of other semitic people in "Israel" based on racial and religious grounds it would be a difficult task to be both Zionist and not anti-semitic in some shape or form. Zionism is what is racist, it is the belief that Jews, based on their race and religious beliefs have a divine right to Israel whereas the other residents have less of a right to it because the Jewish holy text says so. Palestinians have darker skin, their lifestyle is slightly less clean and Western and chances are, you probably didn't go to school with a few Palestinians. Most non-jewish Zionists like Jews because they look and act far more white and they understand a lot of Jewish culture from the western media. The other problem is a gross misinterpretation of the bible, thinking that somewhere, in-between all of that salvation by grace, love and compassion there is a bit where God still wants us to kick some arse and support carving out an Israeli state right in the middle of the middle east and getting ourself rightly hated (and wrongly attacked) because of it.
I think a good model for this for non-Jews is set by Darius who gave Ezra permission to repopulate Jerusalem and Artaxerxes who gave Nehemiah permission to rebuild it while never getting involved themselves or renouncing sovereignty over the land (and thus causing trouble with bordering countries, many being anti-jewish for real). Both of these kings avoided the politic quagmire that exists today because they both knew that returning a nation to their homeland is a very nice thing to do, giving control of your territory and giving full support to ultra-nationalists is just downright bad for business. Persia never had to worry about the Suez Crisis or the Six day war, Persia never had to worry about diplomatic relationships with Arab countries being difficult or terrorist bombings because they helped out Nehemiah because they knew what to help them with and what not to. Back then the people got their temple, they got their own law enforced and they got their freedom and Persia got peace of mind knowing that it wouldn't have caused any problems (Persia owning Egypt and Syria at the stage didn't hurt either to be honest).
Anyway, I find if offensive to hear someone say that if one is sick of the trouble Israel is causing with its racial and religious discrimination, its multi-decade annexation of Palestine without giving the population of this territory rights and its hypocrisy in claiming the right to return after 1900 years in exile while forbidding Palestinians to return after 30 is a racist. I don't hate Jews, I don't even hate Israelis but I am getting mighty pissed off at the ones who want to sweep away the last two millennia worth of residents of Israel for the sake of religious and racial purity. Unfortunately, those types of Israelis make up a regrettably large segment of Israel's Jewish population. Thus, I see no reason why I should approve of someone building a plant in Israel any more than I would have approved of someone building a plant in South Africa twenty years ago.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
"The US Aid is about 3 billion dollars.
thats less than 1.5% of the israeli budget! (revenues-wise) So next time you are saying stuff like "Tax breaks which would not be possible if the U.S. stopped financially supporting the State of Israel" know the numbers."
You proved nothing, AC. That's $3 billion that could be spent on things here in the U.S. Like, for instance, reimbursing California for the full cost of providing healthcare and emergency services for illegal immigrants that the Feds require us to offer yet they don't reimburse our State for. The money should be spent here, not in Israel.
Furthermore, if the U.S. didn't give Israel that $3 billion you cite, do you really think they could afford to give Intel a $500 + million grant? Nope.
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
Oh goodie 45nm could mean an easy Quadcore from Intel wonder if they will use HT in it?
That's just slander, heh But anyway point aside! You don't read New Scientist do you, we'll about four years ago there was an article about how Israel would become the next so-called Silicon Valley! and if you we're that unhappy with that report you should have gone to AMD just at that time! But no.. you whine now! And while I'm on the case have you not noticed that we in the UK again voted for Blair, we're hoping he can get all the Africans over here within the next 100 years or so before our island floods! Looks like my kids, kids > kids we will be finishing off the boar wars were my great great great grandad started them! aww! always wanted to love there, SO much water and land! Didge!
Well Intel has places all over Israel, they have a very large building in Petach Tikvah, as does IBM (i have no idea what they do in them, I just take the bus past them every morning as I go into Tel Aviv).
Kirat Gat is just outside of Ashlalon, about half way between there and Hebron. No idea why they chose to put it there and not any of a dozen other places, but they probably have good reasons. There is no university anywhere near there (the closest is probably in Bear Sheva).
I personally live farther north near Ariel
Erlang Developer and podcaster
"The technology is two generations ahead of the current 90nm."
If it's the technology that comes after this one, doesn't that make it by definition next-generation technology? Is there some scientific basis for this, or is this just more marketing? As if "next-generation" is just not hyped-up enough...
So you like to post off topic every where. You constantly call Israel racist, but how are you not a racist when every thing that has to do with Israel you attack. Do you see the israeli's posting off topic any time there is a mention of Grmanay? Remember the whole holocoust thing ? or are you one of those who say it didn't happen? All these articles are about technology none are about politics. Why do you have to drag in your anti-semetic feelings? If you really want to voice your opionion, go hop on ElAl and go protest infront of the Israeli Parlament building. And while your at it be sure to take a trip to the all the other neighboring countries as well, and just for fun speak out about their govenments. Here is a fun thing travel around the middle east and make a T-shirt for each country you visit that says "I hate NAME OF CURRENT COUNTRY'S LEADER ." Let us know your expected results and then see if they are true.
Any way, have a nice day and please keep your off topic post... off.
and arizona is the surface of the sun so they dont have to spend money on their heating bill... AC on the other hand will be high... that and dust is a problem :) todays high was 108 and that was with it raining yesterday and cloud cover in the afternoon :) but then the other facility in Israel thats not really outsourcing cause they have most their operations there...
(yes i know i suck at spelling fell free to correct my grammar and/or spellin i dont care, im still not going to change
A few months back Washington County (the county where most all of Intel's Oregon facilities are located) announced a deal whereby Intel was given huge tax breaks by the county. In return Intel pledged to spend something like $20 Billion in Oregon over the next 10 years or so. That spending was supposed to create something like 3000 to 5000 more jobs here so the county went along with it thinking they would make up the revenue in property taxes from all those new residents (a questionable assumption anyway, since they would have to build all sorts of new infrastructure like schools and roads to support the increase in population - but I digress)
So now Intel announces that the next big new shiny fab will be located in Arizona. So what gives? Was Washington County taken for a ride?
Besides, doesn't Oregon have a lot more water than Arizona and don't fabs need huge amounts of water?
And then there's the possibility that a significant proportion of the Israeli labour force have a genetic mutation that makes them think faster, a sort of neurological overclocking. Or so some scientists at the University of Utah have claimed.
Why the fuck is Intel making shit in Israel ??
It's not like they are right around the fucking corner.
"Freedom and Justice for All" is a registered trademark of The United States Govt Inc. Not available in all areas.
"3 Billion is not that much money country-wise, neither in the US nor Israel. It's like all of those people criticizing the NASA funding, though it really is only a insignificant amount in the budget."
I'm not criticizing NASA funding. NASA is an American agency. The $3 billion given to Israel would still be better spent in America.
I object to spending $3 billion on a nation in the Middle East that only serves as a lightning rod for hostility on the part of Muslims/Arabs/Persians against the United States and does nothing to secure a national strategic interest such as oil.
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
First off, when did I every do that ?
Would you have called for equal rights for jews in arab countries ?
Also if you think that the arabs have it so bad, maybe you should take a drive around and see all of the mantions they have in The state of Isael. The arabs opress them selves, they are the ones who send their children to die. They are the ones who do not rescue their brothers from "opression." Why don't the arab contries follow Israel's lead and when their brothers are being "opressed" send planes to save them, and accept them with open arms.
Again, take my advice, go and witness this "Racisim" for your self. I think you will be surprized. Arabs can walk around fine in J'lem without fear of being attacked. Can you say the same for a jew that makes a wrong turn in Ramallah ?
Your solution I'm afraid is not what the arabs want. The want to remove the jews, that is their offical position.
Also why should Israel condem Zionism ? To condem zionism is to deny Israel's right to exsist. Are you saying that jews don't have a right to live in their own country ? Take a look at history and see how warmly they were treated by the other nations. Even today it is apparent ( from your posts ) that anti-semitisim is still as strong as ever. For some one to belive such illogical things there must be a base of hatred. Hate manipulates logic acording to his will.
Go visit the state of Israel. and see for your self before you make any more acusations.
Is this the solution that you are propsing ?
Just bought two dell pentium 4 3.0 GHz for $600 by getting a refurbished system. Back two years ago these systems would have cost $2500 each.Compaines like these decide there net worth by simply intorducing a next generation product.And by that everytime microsft is about to launch an xbox or new windows version or intel is about to unleash a new chip or sony with another playstation buy stock in the company and watch your profits soar. Dont belive look at the past if you would have done this when the earlier systems were released.
Wow, critize israel and it's flamebait huh?
evil is as evil does