News.com heeft een artikeltje gepost over de opening van AMD's 400 miljoen dollar kostende Fab 30 in Dresden (zie deze nieuwsposting voor de press release). Dresden zal 0,18micron koper Athlon's produceren en zal naar verwachting tegen midden 2000 de eerste 1GHz versies afleveren:
But as with all things AMD, the new factory represents a potent opportunity and a significant risk. On one hand, Fab 30 will vastly expand AMD's production capacity, long an Achilles' heel for the company, while giving it a momentary technology edge over Intel. On the other, the Dresden facility has been expensive to build and won't be cheap to run, especially worrying for a company that's lost nearly $400 million over the last three quarters.[...] Fab 30 also will allow AMD to market a product the industry leader will not have until 2001. All of the Athlons from the Dresden facility will be based around copper chip technology from Motorola.
Over time, copper is expected to enhance processor performance because the metal conducts electricity better than aluminum. Under current 0.18-micron manufacturing techniques, the difference between the metals is fairly negligible, according to some analysts. But copper advocates disagree, arguing that, if anything, moving to copper now will provide AMD a valuable learning experience.
