This week, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) announced it will invest In America. Chipzilla will invest between $6 billion and $8 billion in American-based manufacturing facilities. Dailywireless says this investment in America will fund the deployment of Intel’s next-generation 22 nanometers (nm) manufacturing process across several existing U.S. factories and building 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.
In an era when politicians and Wall Street refuse to invest in America, Intel has shown its leadership. “This is probably the largest private investment during this last two or three years in this country,” proclaimed Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski. The projects will support 6,000 to 8,000 construction jobs and result in 800 to 1,000 new permanent high-tech jobs according to media reports.
Highlights
- Intel will invest in America with $6-8 billion in manufacturing to support future technology advancements in Arizona and Oregon.
- The investment will create 6,000-8,000 construction jobs and 800-1,000 permanent high-tech jobs, and allows Intel to maintain its current manufacturing employment base in the U.S.
- The investment will fund a new development fab in Oregon, as well as upgrades to four existing U.S. fabs (Fab 12 and Fab 32 in Arizona and D1C and D1D in Oregon) to manufacture the next-generation 22-nm process technology.
- Intel’s next-generation, 22 nm microprocessors will enable sleeker device designs, higher performance, and longer battery life at lower costs.
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.
The “tick” (new architecture) of 32 nm Sandy Bridge, available in January 2011, will be followed by the “tock” (22 nm shrink) of Ivy Bridge in January 2012. The new D1X plant may be built with the 15 nm process in mind since that process would likely be mainstreamed just 12 months after D1X begins production.
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.
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.
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.