De chipbakkerijen in Hsinchu science park (waaronder TSMC, UMC en Winbond) hebben de produktie hervat, zo bericht EETimes. De schade aan de fabrieken blijkt mee te vallen:
Taiwan's fabs have resumed limited production after Taipower, Taiwan's national power utility, decided that providing power to the Hsinchu Science Based Industrial Park was a national priority.Meanwhile, damage to Taiwan's fabs seems to be far less than originally feared. Last Saturday, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.announced that 20 percent of its fabrication equipment was intact. "We did not see any further losses after Friday's inspection," said Y.C. Huang, spokesman for TSMC. "All of our fabs have DI water, HAVC, gas, exhaust and power-supply systems now."
By yesterday, Taiwan's two major fab companies were well on their way to recovery. "TSMC's equipment recovery is now at about 70 percent," said Huang. "Our 6-inch fabs are now at 70 percent of production. Two of our 8-inch fabs are at 50 percent production. We are planning that by Sept. 30 our 8-inch fabs will be at 80 percent."
[...] The Sept. 21 quake will definitely cause PC shortages next month. "Usually Taiwan produces about 5 million core-logic chip sets per month," said Shen. "In September, because of the quake, it will be more like 2.8 million. The price of graphics chips will go up because they also will be in short [supply]."
[...] On a personal level, everyone here is very traumatized. "I keep feeling aftershocks that aren't there," said one marketing manager. "My head hurts, my stomach hurts, I feel disoriented. On [Sept. 22], they sent us home because of fears of aftershocks."
Indeed, Taiwan is not yet out of the woods. An earthquake measuring 6.8 hit the island on Sunday, immediately killing eight people. As of Monday the death toll was at 2,090. Virtually every company in Taiwan is donating money to relieve the misery of the survivors who are without homes.
