Builder spills beans about AMD fab

Information from a builder about AMD's Fab 30 factory in Dresden provides some interesting facts about capacity, size and the loans involved. According to UK based M+W Pearce, Fab 30 cost DM500 million while investment over the next seven years will amount to DM3 billion. This figure consists of three separate investments from the Dresdner Bank, the German government and AMD itself, with the German government providing the lion's share. And, according to the builders, the class 100T cleanroom, which is nine thousand square metres, will be able to provide 5,000 200 millimetre wafers a week when it is at full capacity. Fab 30 started making its first wafers last February. We know, from sources at Compaq, that chips will be built there using copper interconnections later in the year. An AMD representative confirmed that Fab 30 was completed but was unwilling to comment on the facts and figures above. AMD will announce its financials late tomorrow evening. ®