From the Oregonian, November 1:
Secretive labs and tightly guarded clean rooms in Hillsboro have long represented the leading edge of semiconductor technology.
That’s where Intel crafted generations of new microprocessors, chips that led the industry for decades as engineers working at atomic dimensions invented new ways of packing more capabilities into a minute space. Those discoveries powered years of progressively faster, cheaper and more advanced computers.
And it’s there, in Hillsboro, that Intel began making these new chips at research factories tethered to its labs. Intel would then send its meticulously developed manufacturing technique to its other factories around the world where it was replicated precisely, a well-established practice called “copy exactly.”
The model led Intel to become Oregon’s largest corporate employer and one of the state’s major economic engines, convening researchers from all over the world to engineer new chips as the company spent billions of dollars on equipment to manufacture their microscopic marvels.
Now, Intel is laying the groundwork to toss the old model out the window. It is openly flirting with the notion of moving leading-edge production from Oregon to Asia and hiring one of its top rivals to make Intel’s most advanced chips.
The company says a decision is likely in January.
It’s a momentous choice that follows a string of manufacturing setbacks at the Ronler Acres campus near Hillsboro Stadium, failures that have cost Intel its cherished leadership in semiconductor technology – perhaps forever.
Outsourcing wouldn’t shutter Intel’s Oregon factories or close down its Hillsboro research labs. The company says it’s committed to maintaining its advanced research and retaining internal production capacity. It’s continuing a massive expansion of its D1X factory in Hillsboro.
In time, though, Oregon’s central role in Intel’s technology would almost surely erode if the company cedes manufacturing leadership to rivals overseas. Chip industry analyst Dan Hutcheson of VLSI Research believes that transition could render Oregon “irrelevant” if Intel gradually shifts away from integrated research and manufacturing....
....MUCH MORE
