Inside AMD - Touring Fab 30

Final Words

We hope you enjoyed this brief but rare look behind the scenes at AMD, and we hope this will be the first of many similar stories on Inside AMD here on AnandTech. We’ve expressed great interest in coming back to Dresden to spend some more time with the engineers and equipment at Fab 30 to bring you a more detailed picture of AMD’s capabilities as a microprocessor manufacturer.

There is one thing that’s for sure; AMD has not done a very good job of telling the public exactly what they’re capable of from a manufacturing standpoint. Intel has been talking about their manufacturing capabilities for quite some time now and has left the market with the impression that they are the only leader in the x86 manufacturing world. It is a shame because in reality, AMD has quite a few accomplishments of their own to talk about but it’s just a matter of getting them to loosen up and let you all in.

Fab 30 was nothing short of impressive; much more impressive than we had imagined before ever setting foot on the campus of AMD Saxony. The technology and engineering talent at Fab 30 can rival even that of Intel, but obviously on a smaller scale. Fab 30 will begin its transition to 90nm by the end of this year but mass production will not commence until next year, which will put them behind Intel’s schedule. AMD doesn’t have the plethora of manufacturing facilities that Intel does but with that said, Fab 30 can definitely hold its own among the more impressive production plants out there.

We would have liked to bring you more pictures and details from Fab 30 to truly show you the things that impressed us about AMD’s gold mine in Dresden, but that will have to wait for another time. Don’t worry, we’re working on getting AMD to let us tell and show more about what goes on behind the scenes. If you’ll remember from a few years back, it took Intel a while to open up but it eventually happened; AMD will be no different, it’s only a matter of time.

Be sure to check out the other articles in our Inside series:

• Inside Intel - From Silicon to the World
• Inside VIA: Beneath the Hull of WenChi's Ship
• Inside ATI & NVIDIA: How They Make Frames Fly