Intel Invests $1 Billion to Make Next-Gen Chips in New Mexico Feb 28, 2007

Printable format  Email this Article  Search

Intel Corporation will invest U.S. $1 billion to $1.5 billion in its Rio Rancho, New Mexico, U.S. site to retool its Fab 11X manufacturing facility to accommodate the next-generation 45 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process. Fab 11X is scheduled to start the new production in the second half of 2008, making it the company’s fourth factory to use the 45 nm process.

Intel called the process one of the biggest advancements in fundamental transistor design in 40 years, and said the 45 nm high-k and metal gate process consists of a combination of new transistor materials that substantially reduce transistor leakage and increase performance. The company will use a new material with a higher-k (dielectric constant), and a new combination of metal materials for the transistor gate electrode. Early versions of 45 nm products, codenamed Penryn, are said to be running multiple operating systems and applications.

Initial production of 45 nm chips will come from the company's Oregon, U.S. development fab, D1D, and Intel is building two other factories using the process one in Chandler, Arizona, U.S., which will start up in late 2007 and one in Kiryat Gat, Israel, which will begin production the first half of 2008.
 

Back to Daily News