Intel Shutters 14nm Fab

Intel is to shutter a new fab in Chandler Arizona before it has been facilitised due to slumping demand for PC processors.

According to IC Insights, demand for x86 PC processors fell 9% last year to 315 million units.

President Barack Obama described the fab, Fab 42, as “the most advanced, high-volume semiconductor manufacturing facility in the world.”

Intel had planned to spend $5 billion on the 14nm fab but, with capacity utilisation under 80%, has decided it would be better to upgrade existing fabs to 14nm than complete Fab 42.

Intel has been under pressure from financial analysts to rein in capex which was originally planned at $13 billion for 2014 but has now been trimmed to $11 billion.

The fab will remain closed for the foreseeable future and will not be used at the 14nm node.


Comments

18 comments

  1. It’s working now for me too now, although sometimes comments still don’t appear fort a while.

    We ought to have a get together for EW grumpy old men to share a few pints of local ale and and generally complain about things like IT and the state of the semi industry. Only thing is, I suspect we’d all recognise each other!

  2. test so I can see the whole of Keith’s comment.

    FIX YOUR IT !!

  3. When is 10 comments no comments? When it’s EW!

    Seriously David, your previous IT monkeys were better than the current lot.

  4. Ah now I can see your whole responses once I posted something, rather then just the first line on the comments page I can reply more. (Does anyone else have this problem ?)

    The Arizona fab is moreorless an empty shell and if they equiped it out for Flash it would never be suitable for logic. Better to leave it ready for equiping out either for 10nm or their first 450mm fab at 8nm.

  5. David – you shouldn’t just repeat the bollox another journalist puts out. As it says on the Samsung press releases the Samsung device is a 1x nm class product which for Flash means about 18nm.

  6. There is always FLASH, and Intel make the drives, but at 14nm you probably only get a few writes before its at the end of its life.

  7. Even if they made all the world’s programmable logic it would only half fill that fab at most. But of course they are making all of Altera’s devices at 14nm so they are sort of implementing Lefty’s suggestion.

  8. Could they not go into the fpga business with that fancy fab?

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