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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."
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]
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.
"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?
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...
Where's the waffle factory? We need to know!
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:
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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.
I really, really wish people would get their facts straight. I used to work at the plant in Colorado about 5 months ago. I left, the plant is still there. in fact, they are currently expanding that facility right now.
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.
I agree it's off-topic.
However, you imply that any critizism of Israeli politics or policy, or politics or policy connected to Israel, would be anti-semitic. That is BS. Israel is another sovereign state, and one that is democratic no less, and should be subject the same amount of scrutiny as, say, French, American, Russian or Japanese politics and policies. There is no perfect country and no perfect state anywhere in the world, and none that comes even close. But screaming "anti-semitism!" whenever shortcomings are pointed out certainly doesn't encourage discussion and doesn't help anyone redress them.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.