Bye bye Dell...

Peteee wrote: »

It should be noted that the fab plant in dublin manufactures 90nm and 65nm chips. (Probably Core2 Duo chips)

Intel chips have recently moved onto a 45nm manufacturing process for later core2 designs and new i7 chips.

While FAB plants do indeed cost billions of dollars, they become obsolete very fast. So while the tech may be amazingly advanced, like the chips they make it also goes obsolete extremely quickly, and I'm not sure how expensive it would be to retool the factories.

Am open to correction on all the above, I'm just extrapolating from what I've seen about the place!

This is indeed a massive blow for limerick. Knew a few guys who worked there.

The process lengths do decrease rather quickly but usually the adjustment to the photolithography requires a relatively inexpensive retooling of the manufacturing technique as compared to reestablishing a whole new plant to operate for the new process length. But then again, it still might be cheaper to just uproot and go find another geologically stable place for wafer fabrication. I still think Intel will remain though, the location is good and it does need skilled labour whereas Dell was more a manufacturing line than the highly skilled tech giant that the newspapers and government often portrayed it as. For instance there was some poor chump employed there to transform a flat cardboard box in to a cardboard box ready for packaging. Poor guy.

D-Generate wrote: »

it still might be cheaper to just uproot and go find another geologically stable place for wafer fabrication. I still think Intel will remain though, the location is good and it does need skilled labour .

Its a hard one to call about Intel, they are in the process of building a new plant in china and are also just about to go into full production in another new plant in Isreal.The site in Ireland has three fabs, but one of them is sitting ideal with no manufacturing equipment (an empty room , so to speak), but on the other hand the Irsh sites gives Intel their stepping stone into Western Europe, and there are also the very advantagous taxes reasons for staying here.
My guess would be that HP (just down the road from Intel ) will go before Intel does.........

So....anyone with anymore depressing news? Just wat we need before christmas

futura123 wrote: »

well rumours that boston scientific in galway is goin to upsticks...... heard that from quite a few friends in galway

I'd be more worried about Thermo King before Boston. Thermo have laid off hundreds of staff this year and their order books are currently empty for the new year. So there is every chance of a 3 day week or week on week off in the new year for the remaining staff. Thermo supply places like C+F Tooling, Byrne Mech, Iggy Maddens and many others with business so there will be a knock on with them no more then if Boston fecks off too.

Nothing is confirmed at all.

Its the same old story that keeps rumbling along.

Browney7 wrote: »

As for Intel potentially leaving. Not a chance. The amount of capital they have put into their factories here nearly means they can't. The Fabs (fabrication labs) they have are some of the most technologically advanced in the world and the expertise required to operate these is not widely available in cheaper locations.

By the time they're built the Fabs are out of date. It's costly to "redo" the Fabs. Sadly, I'd say the Fabs will become useless in 10 years or less, at the rate they're going.

professore; One thing that separates us from Isreal: the US doesn't give us massive funding every year.