Intel plans $5 billion Arizona chip plant by 2013 (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Intel Corp plans to build a $5 billion, cutting-edge microchip factory in Arizona by 2013, sharply ramping up its U.S. manufacturing capacity as part of a major global expansion.

The state-of-the-art plant, which will crank out microchips with next-generation 14 nanometer line-widths, is expected to bring thousands of jobs to the cash-strapped western U.S. state, which is offering more incentives to lure businesses.

The announcement came after the White House announced it had appointed Intel chief executive Paul Otellini to a panel of experts advising President Barack Obama on jobs. Obama will tour Intel's Oregon manufacturing base on Friday.

Obama met with Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs and other technology industry leaders in Northern California on Thursday as part of a campaign to promote technological innovation as a means of boosting the struggling economy and reducing the 9 percent unemployment rate.

Construction on Intel's plant should kick off in the middle of this year, it said in a statement. When completed, the plant will churn out next-generation 14-nanometer line-width transistors and microchip wafers of 300 millimeters.

Intel said in October it plans to spend $6 billion to $8 billion on high-tech manufacturing facilities in Arizona and Oregon, creating as many as 8,000 construction jobs.

In January, the world's largest chip maker unveiled its next-generation microchip, code-named Sandy Bridge, which it said will yield about a third of its corporate revenue in 2011.

About three-quarters of Intel's manufacturing takes place in the United States. But it is expanding capacity around the world, including in Israel and China.

Intel shares rose 0.5 percent to $22.07 on Nasdaq late Friday afternoon.

(Reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Richard Chang)

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Obama to go to West Coast, visit Intel Corp. (AP)

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will travel to Oregon next week to visit Intel Corp., yet another step in the president's effort to draw attention to the role of education in preparing Americans for new high-tech jobs.

During the trip to Hillsboro, Ore., on Friday, Obama will tour Intel's semiconductor manufacturing facility with Intel CEO Paul Otellini. Intel has its own education program, including curriculum, competition and online resources to encourage studies in science, technology, engineering and math.

Otellini was among 20 business CEOs who met privately with Obama in December. The Intel executive has been a critic of Obama administration policies, saying they have created too much uncertainty for the business community. He told CNN in September that the policies had not resulted in either job growth of increased consumer confidence.

Since then, Obama has stressed the role of innovation as a key component of his job-creation plans.

Oregon is a solidly Democratic state. Its governor and two senators are Democrats and Obama won the state handily in 2008. Obama was last in Oregon in October, when he attended a rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Kitzhaber, the eventual winner.

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How long a wait for PCs, Macs with fixed Intel chip?

How long is the wait for new PCs and Macs packing fixed versions of Intel's latest and greatest silicon? That question has PC makers, not to mention performance junkies, on tenterhooks.
Update: Note that Intel updated the shipment status on Monday after this article was posted.
Sandy Bridge is Intel's first full 32-nanometer processor and boasts improved graphics.
(Credit: Intel)
Intel announced on January 31 that it had stopped shipments of the "Cougar Point" chipset that accompanies its second-generation Intel Core ("Sandy Bridge") processor owing to a flaw that can affect access to a hard-disk drive, optical drive, or other device that connects to a computer using SATA technology.
Launched at this year's CES, Sandy Bridge--or "Second Generation Intel Core Processor"--is the first mainstream Intel chip to integrate graphics silicon directly onto the processor, allowing Intel to improve power efficiency as well as multimedia and gaming capabilities.
How long will it take Intel to get back up to speed?
Intel VP Stephen Smith's response to a question during a conference call on January 31 to discuss the chipset glitch provides probably the best idea of how long the delay will be for the Sandy Bridge dual-core chips that most consumers will get with their systems.
"We were planning to launch those mainstream systems with dual core in a few weeks. And this will likely push out the window of launch a few weeks relative to our plans," he said.
Smith continued. "And we need to understand from the OEMs [PC makers] how quickly they can refill their pipelines with this new Cougar Point chipset and get that into their build. Our expectation is that that can happen fairly quickly because really those lines are already set up for Sandy Bridge ramp. But net-net effect of launch is probably measured in a few weeks."
That sounds a lot like late this month at the earliest.
And what are PC makers saying about schedules?
Not much. PC makers are, for the most part, releasing details on systems that have been affected. Dell, for instance, said it pulled four systems, including desktops and laptops. Toshiba also listed a bevy of laptops that are being yanked from sales.
Hewlett-Packard is providing, by way of its online sales site, probably one of the most precise delivery target dates. An HP Pavilion dv7tqe laptop with a Sandy Bridge processor is now listed with a shipment date of March 4--roughly a month from now. Other Pavilion Sandy Bridge-based laptops also have a March 4 shipment date.
And note that HP's March date is for laptops with quad-core Sandy Bridge processors. The quad-core versions were the first Sandy Bridge chips shipped from Intel and configurations have been available with those processors from some PC makers since January. On the other hand, dual-core Sandy Bridge systems were not shipping from top-tier laptop vendors at the time of Intel's announcement on January 31 so estimated shipment dates are even less clear.
PC makers such as Panasonic and Fujitsu had made announcements in Japan for laptops with dual-core Core i5 Sandy Bridge chips slated for "spring." How the recall will affect these systems is unknown.
And retailers?
Retailers like Best Buy have been literally pulling Sandy Bridge systems off the shelves, scrubbing their online sale sites of systems, and postponing shipments that were expected to arrive in the near future. That said, for now, HP's online ordering estimates are probably a reasonable ETA for retailers.
A representative at Fry's Electronics in Palo Alto, Calif.--a major electronics retailer--told CNET yesterday that Intel had announced that replacements for motherboards with Sandy Bridge silicon should be out by the end of February.
What about Apple MacBooks and Macs in general?
Apple does not have any Sandy Bridge-based systems, nor has it announced any. Apple's MacBook lineup, for instance, consists of old Core 2 Duo processors (MacBook, MacBook Air, and 13-inch MacBook Pro) and last-generation Core i5 and i7 processors (15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros). To be fair, last-generation Core i5 and i7 processors comprise the preponderance of laptop processors at PC vendors like HP, Dell, Toshiba, and Sony. So, with the exception of the small form factor MacBooks, Apple's processor lineup is no different from the PC guys.
But there have been fairly cogent arguments made and rumors floated that a Sandy Bridge MacBook refresh would hit soon. So, the question is, how far does this push out a highly probable future rollout of Sandy Bridge-based models? If Apple was planning a February or March refresh, then there are obvious delays. If the rollout was planned for late spring or early summer, then the delay would probably be minimal.
This schedule would also apply to Apple's iMac, for example, which currently uses last-generation Core i3 and Core i5 chips.
Sandy Bridge is a (very) new processor line:
Remember that Intel caught this glitch in the chipset early. Sandy Bridge was just announced in January and systems had just begun to make it to retailers and PC makers' online ordering databases. And those first Sandy Bridge systems were not mass-market but rather pricey, high-end PCs that relatively few people would buy. So, we may never know with any certainty how long unannounced systems from companies like HP, Dell, and Apple were delayed.
Updated at at 3:20 p.m. PST: adding information about Sandy Bridge shipping status update.
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Fixed Intel chip to ship in mid-February

Intel said today it would begin shipments of fixed Sandy Bridge chipsets in mid-February.
The chipmaker announced a week ago that it had stopped shipments of the "Cougar Point"--aka, the Intel 6 series--chipset that accompanies its second-generation Intel Core ("Sandy Bridge") processor owing to a flaw that can affect, in a small percentage of systems, access to a hard-disk drive, optical drive, or other device that connects to a computer using SATA technology.
"Intel has started manufacturing on a new version of this support chip. Intel now expects to begin shipping the new parts in mid-February," Intel said today.
The chipmaker also said that after "extensive discussions with computer makers...Intel is resuming shipments of the Intel 6 Series Chipset for use only in PC system configurations that are not impacted by the design issue."
"Several customers [PC makers] still wanted to buy the current [not fixed] version of the Cougar Point chipset to continue Sandy Bridge sales. They will work closely with Intel to ensure 'known good' configs," an Intel spokesman said in an e-mail.
The issue affects SATA ports 2 through 5, not ports 0 and 1. Therefore, some laptops, which use only those two "good" ports, for example, would not be affected, according to Intel. In more technical terms, the affected ports 2 through 5 are 3 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) SATA 2 ports. The "good" (0 and 1) ports are 6Gbps SATA 3 ports. In a small percentage of systems performance degradation may occur on the "bad" ports.
The glitch caught the PC industry and retail channel by surprise. PC makers and retailers, who were just beginning to transition their laptop and desktop lineups to systems based on the Sandy Bridge processor, had to bring sales to an abrupt halt last week.
Retailers like Best Buy had been literally pulling Sandy Bridge systems off the shelves, while PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard had pushed out shipment dates for the first Sandy Bridge laptops until March.
PC makers are eager to ship systems with the latest Intel processor because it offers improved power efficiency and better performance. In particular, it speeds up gaming graphics and multimedia tasks at virtually no extra cost because the graphics silicon is built directly onto the main processor--a first for an Intel mainstream chip.
And a highly-anticipated Sandy Bridge update for Apple's MacBook line is also due. A prolonged delay due to the glitch had the potential for thwarting Apple's plans.
But with Intel's updated schedule of mid-February for fixed chipset shipments, consumers can rest easy that delays will be relatively brief and painless, according to Intel.
Luckily, Sandy Bridge is a new processor line and Intel was able to catch the glitch in the chipset early. And on another serendipitous note, most of the systems with the flawed chipset had been shipping in relatively small numbers, as they were not mass-market but rather pricey, high-end PCs that relatively few people would buy.
See related CNET article.
Updated at 2:50 p.m. PT and again at 4:15 p.m. throughout.
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