This is something I saw over at Ars Technica. This is a big and ugly move for AMD, no chip fabrication and just straight up design might put them in a hard place. Intel at the moment does both, and has many fabrication production facilities. Here are some facts about AMD:
AMD has planned expansions in their production capacity. In addition to the completion of Fab 36 in Dresden (300 mm 90 nmSOI), AMD is planning to upgrade Fab 30 (adjacent to Fab 36) in Dresden from 200 mm 90 nm process SOI to a 300 mm 65 nm process SOI facility and rename it Fab 38, and open a new facility at the Luther Park Technology Campus in Stillwater, New York (likely 300 mm 32 nm process SOI production) between years 2009 to 2010. processAnd here is some information about Intel:
Intel currently operates four 300-mm fabs that provide the equivalent manufacturing capacity of about eight 200-mm factories. Those factories are located in Oregon, Ireland and New Mexico. The company also has an additional 300-mm fab currently under construction in Arizona (Fab 12) scheduled to begin operations later this year, and one expansion in Ireland (Fab 24-2) scheduled to begin operations in the first quarter of next year.It was hard to find a lot of detail about Intels Facilities. Even WikiPedia and a 4 page google search turned up nothing.
AMD considering getting out of fabrication business – Reports are surfacing that AMD is seriously considering a move out of the chip fabrication business, focusing its efforts entirely on chip design. It would be a risky move on AMD’s part, even if it would ameliorate some of the company’s cash flow problems.
