Intel Corp (INTC)

[Elmer Phud]

wbmw

Elmer, that will depend on what manufacturing process a Calexico chip is on. If it's .25u, Intel may not have any to spare, since the majority of their fabs have transitioned to newer processes. TSMC still has plenty of capacity at smaller dimensions, though.[/i}

It's hard for me to believe Intel would be designing anything new on .25u but I've been fooled before. I was under the understanding that Intel was developing a new process specifically for comms.

However, while that would be the simplest explanation, it's more likely that new communications devices are new being produced at the .18u level. In this case, it's all speculation, but my hunch is that Intel is trying to wind down .18u operations, and move everything to .13u.

F11 will be running .18u for quite a while still and that fab has enormous capacity. F18 is 100% .18u and when Willamette rolls off there they will have lots of capacity open. Additionally Irelands fabs are .18u and add to the total too.

Having said all this, Intel obviously knows more about their fab loading than I do so if they see a need it must be for a reason.

EP