IBM to spend $5bn on chipmaking
IBM will make capital investments worth $5bn to support its semiconductor business around the world, expanding facilities in Vermont and Japan, and building a new chipmaking plant in New York.
"Demand is white-hot in three critical segments -- chips for big servers, chips to power the explosion in Internet access devices and chips in the networking equipment that ties everything together," chief executive Lou Gerstner said in a release.
IBM said today that the new East Fishkill, New York facility will combine copper interconnects, silicon-on-insulator and low-k dielectric insulation on 300mm wafers. The plant is expected to begin operations in the second half of 2002, bringing up to 1,000 new jobs to the region upon full production in early 2003.
The new plant will allow the company to be the first chipmaker to mass-produce semiconductors at microscopic line-widths below 0.10 micron -- 1,000 times thinner than a human hair and much thinner than the 0.18 micron technology used today.
IBM is also expanding organic and ceramic chip packaging operations worldwide, as well as its joint venture with Infineon in Corbeil-Essonnes, France.
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