AMD's Fab 36 Grand Opening - 90nm and 300mm in Germany
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 14, 2005 7:50 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
AMD Draws a Crowd: German Chancellor Schröder Arrives
After the initial press conference we took a short bus ride to an outside tent where both Dr. Deppe and Dr. Ruiz gave a few words about Dresden and Fab 36, before handing the mic off to German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
One point to note was the constant mentioning of "fair competition" in all of Dr. Ruiz speeches, obviously referring to AMD's recent lawsuit against Intel. Dr. Ruiz also mentioned AMD's 50-by-15 goal; that by 2015, 50% of the world will be "connected", partially in thanks to an increase in production of AMD's products. Intel has also outlined their plans for 2015, which we've covered in the past.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
Chancellor Schröder also made it a point to mention the importance of such a large investment in Dresden, being a part of former East Germany, while stressing that the incoming German government should make it a point to encourage similar investments in the future.
Chancellor Schröder also briefly touched on the topic of fair competition and how Germany's cooperation with AMD has been in the spirit of fair competition, also clearly in reference to AMD's recent lawsuit.
Governer of Saxony, Professor Dr. Georg Milbradt
Dresden is located in the German state of Saxony, and next up was the Governer of the State of Saxony, Professor Dr. Georg Milbradt. Professor Milbradt spoke of the history of Saxony from its humble beginnings to being a center for semiconductor manufacturing thanks to companies like AMD and Siemens.
Professor Milbradt's speech also took a political tone, as he stressed the importance of the new federal government to do even more to encourage investments such as AMD's in Dresden. He stressed that the investments are necessary in order to make Saxony and Dresden competitive in the EU and in the world.
Both Milbradt and Schröder hinted that AMD should definitely consider Dresden for their next fab plant, which Dr. Ruiz mentioned could potentially begin construction as early as 2008.
More 300mm wafers, we counted at least 5 today, that should be enough for at least a few Athlon 64 X2s.
The speeches were concluded with a ceremonial "raising of the wafer" as a 300mm wafer rose from the stage and was presented to Dresden, the state of Saxony and Dresden.
The events at Fab 36 in Dresden are just beginning, we're about to head to a Q&A session followed by some technical tracks and tours of the new plant.
AMD is hopefully going to present us with their future plans later today, which we've been looking forward to ever since Intel's IDF announcements. We'll see if AMD can deliver a more interesting look at their future than the ambiguity that we've been given in the past; stay tuned.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
70 Comments
View All Comments
cryptonomicon - Saturday, October 15, 2005 - link
how exciting :Di always wanted AMD to get a new fab, what takes em so long :P
rcc - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
that a company suing someone else for business practice and unfair competition can annouce that it got a half billion dollar of government subsidizing on a new Fab plant without anyone commenting on it. So I had to. : )eljefe2 - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
If you live in the US, yes this would be an issue. However they live in Germany. they have a socialist and MUCH more advanced society for handling the big business to employee gap. The corporation, as originally designed by Alexander Hamilton, was an entity of the public that is meant to serve the public and if it does not, it cannot exist. They in germany really see things like this. the pride of the worker ='s the pride of the nation ='s the pride of a company.would be nice.
phantom505 - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
What about SOI? As far as I know Intel never implemented it.So how do you figure AMD is a year behind Intel when they went VERY different strategies and routes?
Spoonbender - Monday, October 17, 2005 - link
Because AMD is going to have 65nm a year after Intel. Simple as that. Yes, of course they both have some different technologies, but a 90nm chip has a bigger die area than an equivalent 65nm chip. That means a 90nm chip is more expensive to produce, because there's room for fewer chips per wafer.What you might have missed is that this isn't a question of performance. AMD is not behind Intel at all when it comes to making good, fast CPU's.
They are behind when it comes to producing them as cheap as possibly. Because they won't be able to shrink to 65nm until a year after Intel.
fishbits - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
Heheheh. Geeks. Was this accompanied by "Thus Spake Zarathustra?"
Anyhow, congrats to AMD and Germany, great news.
Questar - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
I think it would be better news if it was AMD and the US.mlittl3 - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
Uh, the US is the most economical strong country in the world. Stop being such a stupid patriot and realize that all people of the world benefit when any one country benefits from technological innovation. Man, we really need to get Americans to shutup and stop being so greedy.By the way, I'm an American. :)
overclockingoodness - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
Actually, it's better AMD didn't open a Fab in the U.S. They would have to pay much higher wages, taxes etc.By opening a fab in Germany, they will hopefully save that money to expand (notice I didn't say they will pass on the savings to its customers, which would never happen) and they need this money if they want to start construction of a new fab plant in 2008.
eljefe2 - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
higher wages???have you seen the european euro vs us dollar? its really destroying us. (us the um, US) East germany does actually have lower wages than we do. However, they have amazing schools over there all free, all health care free, 1 month paid leave a year, free child care.... The amount the corporations actually pay per person is very high. I think they just put this plant there because, as the article notes, the people there are very good workers and very knowledgable. not ever corporation follows the juvenile philosophy of "give it to a pathetic third world nation and see what profits we can make". It is good to see that. After all, 27% of US population are direct descendents from Germany. More than any other culture percentage wise. The better europe does, the more the structure of corporations are bent to a first world society vs a 10 cents an hour slave labor force structure. THis is good for all who live in the western world.