Intel announced today that the company will invest between $6 billion and $8 billion on future generations of manufacturing technology in its American facilities.
The action will fund deployment of Intel’s next-generation 22- nanometer (nm) manufacturing process across several existing U.S. factories, along with the construction of a new development fabrication plant in Oregon. The Oregon factory should be ready in 2013 and will primarily produce chips for research and development as Intel advances its designs.
Washington County’s new development fab will be called D1X and is scheduled for research and development startup in 2013. Upgrades are also planned for the D1C and D1D fabs on the Hillsboro campus. The projects will support 6,000 to 8,000 construction jobs and result in 800 to 1,000 new permanent high-tech jobs.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Intel will spend $6-8 billion in manufacturing to support future technology advancements in Arizona and Oregon.
- The investment supports the creation of 6,000-8,000 construction jobs and 800-1,000 permanent high-tech jobs, and also allows Intel to maintain its current manufacturing employment base at these U.S. sites.
- The investment will fund a new development fab in Oregon, as well as upgrades to four existing fabs to manufacture the next-generation 22-nanometer (nm) process technology.
- Intel’s next-generation, 22nm microprocessors will enable sleeker device designs, higher performance and longer battery life at lower costs.
Intel’s announcement indicated a new development fab will be built in Oregon (above), along with upgrading four other U.S. fabs (Fab 12 and Fab 32 in Arizona and D1C and D1D in Oregon).
Oregon Live reports that Intel will remake its advanced Ronler Acres campus for the new Fab. The new Hillsboro plant — Intel’s first new plant since 2007 — is scheduled to start production in 2013, reports the NY Times.
“This is probably the largest private investment during this last two or three years in this country,” proclaimed Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski.
Intel has approximately 15,000 employees in Oregon, making it the largest private employer in the state (pdf). Intel’s operations in Oregon stretch across six campuses in Washington County west of Portland. It is the company’s largest and most comprehensive site in the world, a global center of semiconductor research and manufacturing and the anchor of Oregon’s economy.
Intel’s upcoming 32-nanometer “Sandy Bridge” Core architecture got much of the attention at the company’s developer show last month. Sandy Bridge chips, built using 32 nm architecture, will be out early in 2011. Ivy Bridge is the codename given to the 22 nm die shrink of Sandy Bridge.
During his keynote address at the Intel Developer Forum, Sept. 13, CEO Paul Otellini said that the company’s Ivy Bridge” processor, a 22-nm chip, is on schedule and will be delivered in the second half of 2011. The chips are already in sample production, he said.
“Last year at IDF, I showed you the first working wafer with SRAM devices on it,” Otellini said during his talk. “This year, I’m happy to report that our first microprocessor designed for 22 nanometers is moving through our fabs as we speak here today.”
The “tick” (new architecture) of 32nm Sandy Bridge, available in January 2011, will be followed by the “tock” (22nm shrink) of Ivy Bridge which may be released as early as the second half of 2011. The Haswell microarchitecture, scheduled for release in the first half of 2013 is the new microarchitecture built on 22nm. It will be followed by the “tock” shrink to 15nm. The new D1X plant may be built with the 15nm process in mind since that process would likely be mainstreamed some 12 months after D1X begins production in 2013.
The NY Times has a profile on Mark Bohr, an Intel fellow who helped sheppard the technology inside Hillsboro’s D1D plant (See DW: Intel Investing $7B in 32nm).
Intel is also building its first production facility in China, reports Bloomberg. Intel is vying with Samsung Electronics to be the industry’s biggest spender on plants and equipment in 2010. Intel’s microprocessors run more than 80 percent of the world’s personal computers. Rival Samsung is the biggest maker of memory chips.
Moving to 22-nanometer could also help the company produce chips with lower power consumption to better compete in smartphones—where designs from ARM currently dominate. Intel launched the Atom platform two years ago. Now executives are looking to aggressively expand the reach of the Atom chips, into tablets, handheld devices and phones.
