Intel flicks switch on second 65nm fab

Fab 12 goes live

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 2nd November 2005 10:23 GMT

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Intel has finished upgrading its Chandler, Arizona-located Fab 12 chip manufacturing facility to 65nm production standards, the company said today.

The 300mm-wafer fab is Intel's second 65nm production facility. It's been powered down for the last year and a half, but it's now punching out wafers, with the number of wafer starts each month due to ramp up over the coming 12 months.

Intel is scheduled to begin shipping its first 65nm processors, the dual-core, next generation of Pentium M, aka 'Yonah', by the end of 2005, just ahead of the chips' formal introduction in Q1 2006. Next quarter should also see the arrival of 65nm single- and dual-core desktop processors, codenamed 'Cedar Mill' and 'Presler', respectively.

Chandler is also home to Fab 32, which Intel is currently upgrading to take 300mm etched using 45nm lithography, at a cost of $3bn. It's due to go into volume production in H2 2007 as Intel's first commercial 45nm fab.

The chip giant is also upgrading its Fab 11X 300mm-wafer facility in Rio Rancho, New Mexico to increase 90nm production and add a 65nm output capability. ®

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