Intel invests in 22nm fabs
Intel's commitment to fabrication on a 22nm process size looks set to cost the company $8 billion.
According to chief executive Paul Otellini, the planned investment of between $6 billion and $8 billion 'reflects the next tranche of the continued advancement of Moore's Law and a further commitment to invest in the future of Intel and America.'
Otellini went on to claim that 'the most immediate effect of our multi-billion-dollar investment will be the thousands of jobs associated with building a new fab and upgrading four others, and the high-wage, high-tech manufacturing jobs that follow'
While the temporary 6,000 to 8,000 construction jobs associated with the Oregon project and the creation of between 800 to 1,000 permanent high-tech posts will be certainly welcomed, it's the technology that's the important thing - and Intel will be using the new and upgraded manufacturing facilities to produce its 'Ivy Bridge' processors, 22nm chips due to hit the mass market in 2011.
While firm details about Ivy Bridge have yet to appear, Intel is promising that the small process size will mean 'sleeker device designs, higher performance, and longer battery life at lower costs,' suggesting that the first 22nm processors will be aimed at the mobile and small-form factor markets.
Sadly, the new Oregon plant won't be getting in on the act for a while, with Intel stating that the D1X fab is 'scheduled for R&D start-up in 2013.'
Do you think that Intel's investment in 22nm technology is the way to go, or could the company have saved itself a whole lot of cash by farming the fabrication out to third parties? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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17 Comments
Discuss in the forums Replywould be great though if they could squeeze out enough juice from a 22nm to succesfully run a laptop. think of the battery time.
can't see why it would be a great addition to the mobile phone market as there already are a couple of phones out there with 1ghz processors.
As for the article, as cheesy and propaganda-ish as Intel's statement sounds (4 AMERIKUH), I'm glad they're pumping their money into more fabs, more research, and more jobs rather than pocketing all of their income just because AMD is still so far behind.
32-22 will be a nice performance stepping and will include some really nice tech developments I suspect.
We need synergy between hardware and software advances.....
Still it's all wasted if the focus remains on cores and not Mhz unless the software and games developers start focusing on true 'multi core' capabilities as well as standardising on 64bit instead of 32.
If we talk PC games these will continue to be driven in thd mainstream by console designs, that is to say if next gen consoles remain 32bit and lack 4+ cores processing capabilities, PC games pioneering for multi core platforms will be the exception rather than the norm.
So my hope is that software/console and games developers all embrace multi core now, in preparation for the new hardware trends.
That reminded me more of Catch-22, 'What's good for M&M Enterprises is good for the world'
What Cheese? What Propaganda?
At least when they say they're doing something, the end result is they do it and a damn fine job at it.
what i meant was that when this hits the market (2011?) the processors that are currently being used will probably have clock speeds of well above 2 ghz, although i do agree that a dual or even quad core would be awesome in a phone =). perhaps one core dedicated as gpu?
blurring the line between phone and laptop (already done by palm a while ago).