Globalfoundries Starts on 22nm Fab & Announces First non-AMD Customer
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 29, 2009 4:01 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Final Words
When AMD announced that it would be spinning off its fabs it was honestly the only decision the company could have made. Even while continuing to hemorrhage money after the announcement, the move has the potential to succeed just like the ATI acquisition did; it'll just take a while.
A leaner AMD, focused almost entirely on design and not on keeping fabs full is a better match for Intel. AMD could never compete on manufacturing alone, but at least this way it has the opportunity to compete on technical design.
Decoupling manufacturing from microprocessor design wouldn't make sense without the help of ATIC. The $6B investment is enough to give Globalfoundries the chance to start and succeed. AMD simply wouldn't be able to do this without ATIC.
As an independent entity, Globalfoundries itself can do quite well. Microprocessors are becoming increasingly important in the world. The demand for tons of cheap, high performance, low power SoCs and microprocessors is supported by what we've seen happen with smartphones and netbooks. The trend is going to continue and while I'm sure we'll see only a couple of SoC makers dominate the market in the end, they will need a place to make their chips.
Upstate NY used to be known for making potato chips, now it'll be known for making computer chips. Clever.
The impact of all of this on the US and NY economies is pretty huge. It's all pretty sweet. Over the next three years a $4B building gets created, which means jobs for construction workers, additional revenue for everyone who makes the things buildings are made out of and eventually extra revenue for companies that make microprocessor manufacturing tools. Then, once the building is complete, you get a plant of 1400 people. Many of them are highly skilled workers, their total yearly salary being $88M. Their families move into the area, everyone buys homes or rents apartments, they all shop, eat out, go to movies and the entire local economy benefits.
Of course you have to feed the plant with new hires and luckily there's a big nanotech school graduating really smart folks a few miles away. They now have a place to work and the school has another very appealing employment path to offer its students, attracting even more to its campus.
NY's Governor David Paterson and Hector Ruiz. The fab deal is quite political.
All of this from a single fab being made in upstate NY. Did I mention that there are two more spots to build fabs next to Fab 2 Module 1? The rumor is that ATIC wants the next one built in Abu Dhabi though (after all, that is where the money for all of this is coming from).
With money in the bank we won't have to worry about Globalfoundries lasting through the recession. Now it's a matter of who the next customers will be.
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TA152H - Thursday, July 30, 2009 - link
Obviously, you're a moron.Think before you post, OK?
IBM CAN afford just about anything, but they don't afford things that lose money. Perforce, IBM's fabs make money, or they'd jettison them. How is it they make money with their fabs, and AMD can't? AMD sells a lot more processors. The answer is simple, except for you. AMD is making a crappy processor they can't sell for much money.
I'll say it again, because you're obviously slow. IBM has fabs that make money, or they'd get out of the business. They sell less processors. Therefore, AMD having to own the x86 business is a idiotic remark. They just need processors that they can sell for a higher margin. Got it now, simpleton?
HVAC - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 - link
Dear Brybir,Here, let me help you by writing the reply you should have written instead of the diatribe you did submit:
"@TA152H .... MORON!"
brybir - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 - link
You are correct.I got caught in a moment of weakness in my desire to keep the trolls away. I am also bored at work. A very bad combination.
What I have done here represents all that is bad and wrong with the world. I will turn in my nerd card at the door and go sit in a shallow pool of cold water in a dark corner of the room until I am better.
DFranch - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 - link
strikeback03: I did not realize that Malta, NY had a reputation for rain. It's not exactly Seattle.strikeback03 - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 - link
I lived in the area for 4 years, it rains enough, and snows morekarhill - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 - link
Malta's annual rainfall is about 43.5 inches, compared to 37 inches for Seattle.Tuor - Thursday, July 30, 2009 - link
Heh. You shouldn't be looking at rain totals, but days per year that it's mostly cloudy/cloudy. I'm pretty sure Seattle will beat out Malta pretty easily in that regard... but maybe not.JarredWalton - Thursday, July 30, 2009 - link
http://countrystudies.us/united-states/weather/was...">Olympia is much worse than http://countrystudies.us/united-states/weather/was...">Seattle, according to that site.JarredWalton - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 - link
Ha! You leave my lovely state of WA out of this. At least here in Olympia, we get very little (if any) rain during the time of June-August. My grass is dead, and current temps are in the mid-90s (supposed to hit 101F today!), which totally sucks. Anything above 80F is too hot for me. :-(GIVE ME BACK MY RAIN, DAGNABBIT!
FYI, Olympia gets more rain than Seattle: estimate is around 180 days of rain per year. LOL
just4U - Thursday, July 30, 2009 - link
Yeah it's really hot here in Calgary, Canada right now. It's like 61F .. and were expecting it to get up to 82F tomorrow.. Ugh!!(WTH who thru that shoe at me! oO)