Chartered to Meet Additional Demand
Although AMD currently manufactures its microprocessors at a single fab, a second, Fab 36, is nearly complete next door to AMD's Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany. Scheduled to come on line early next year, the fab will initially produce 90-nm wafers but quickly shift over to 65-nm lines, said Daryl Ostrander, senior vice president of logic and manufacturing.
Through a partnership with Chartered Semiconductor – and IBM, who helped refine the manufacturing process – AMD will be able to pass excess demand onto Chartered, which Ostrander characterized as a "flex fab".
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Scheduled to come on line in 2006, Chartered's lines will be able to supply roughly 10 million processors in 2006 and about 30 million in 2007, according to a chart Ostrander displayed. Chartered will supply 65-nm chips in 2007.
Ostrander said that refinements to AMD's Automated Precision Manufacturing strategy would allow the company to react extremely quickly to possible glitches, and that some elements of the technology would be installed at the Chartered facility. A formal process of "continued technology improvement" will help AMD install new technologies using manufacturing processes. Meanwhile, 45-nm development is on track, he said.