Intel ramp up 65nm flash memory chips in new US$2Bn. Irish plant

Intel Corporation have announced a major step change in semi conductor fabrication in April in sampling the NOR multi-level cell flash memory chips at 1-gigabit density using its advanced 65-nanometer (nm) process technology on 300mm silicon slices.

These devices are used in huge volume in cell phones to manage critical phone operations, handle Personal Information Management data and to store photos, music and videos.
The new devices share a common flash architecture to simplify the migration from 90nm to 65nm process technology.

Today they announce the opeing of the new Leixlip Ireland facility (with the exciting name of Fab 23-2) in which they have invested an eye watering US$2Bn to produce these devices in volume. They already have the same process facility in Intel labs in Arizona (Fab 12) and Oregon (D1D).

“Intel is establishing a clear technology lead with our next generation of dual-core processors based on the Intel® Core™ microarchitecture,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini on opening the new facility.

This summer Intel will introduce Intel® Core™2 Duo processors for desktop (formerly codenamed Conroe) and notebooks (formerly codenamed Merom) and the Dual-Core Intel® Xeon processor 5100 series (formerly codenamed Woodcrest).

Intel also claim that they will maintain their leadership as they are well on track to begin production using its next-generation 45nm process technology by the end of 2007 - which will make this plany obsolete by ...well, say 2010?