Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Intel breaks ground on $20B Arizona plants as U.S. chip factory race heats up

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 326 posts

Re: Intel breaks ground on $20B Arizona plants as U.S. chip factory race heats up

#171

Post by thehappypm »

acomjean wrote: post #156
jmpman wrote: post #144

Is there any evidence that Intel has fixed its process problems? Otherwise aren’t they building a $20B liability?

I think they're doing ok. I don't follow too closely, but 11th gen intel mobile is behind AMD. The good new for intel is they're not so far behind this generation that no one will buy their chips. Intel have new management and some optimism and by the time the plant is finished in 2-3 years they'll have their ducks in a row, but who knows what the market will be like then. In a bad scenario they could be a end up a b…

If you look at many applications that are absolutely guzzling chips -- automotive, appliances, IoT -- you don't need cutting edge chips. Cheap and fast enough is a great market niche. Especially when "fast enough" is state-of-the-art from 5 years ago.

Re: Intel breaks ground on $20B Arizona plants as U.S. chip factory race heats up

#172

Post by arcticfox »

TrueDuality wrote: post #163
BurningFrog wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That still doesn't explain where this unfresh water comes from.

They're taking raw untreated river/lake/aquifer water, purifying it to an incredible degree for the fab. When they use the water it gets cleaned again. Now that water can either be returned to the river/lake/aquifer or if you clean it sufficiently well it can go straight into municipal drinking water supplies. That's how this fresh water comes out of nowhere.

That doesn't seem right. As far as I know, rivers/lakes/aquifers are pretty much the definition of fresh water.

Re: Intel breaks ground on $20B Arizona plants as U.S. chip factory race heats up

#173

Post by dillondoyle »

sneak wrote: post #150

I often wonder if Intel and Boeing are going to end up as effective branches of US government, too big/strategic to ever let actually fail (or even let be sufficiently battered by market realities). Boeing seems like it's already there, and Intel can't be far behind.

There's already precedent with a fab in MN https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14416247

And the US Govt props up other critical industry, not just for military but trade, gas, & food.

Personally I support it.

Re: Intel breaks ground on $20B Arizona plants as U.S. chip factory race heats up

#174

Post by pm90 »

clarkmoody wrote: post #133
Nbox9 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AZ Natural Disasters AZ suffers from heat waves, which are steadily getting worse over time. Last year in a heat wave Phoenix saw several days above 115F. A 115F heatwave is a natural disaster mitigated by air conditioning. Hopefully a heat wave doesn’t coincide with a 2020 Texas sized electrical blackout. This isn’t a massive problem now, but imagine how bad AZ heat waves will be by the end of his factories life.

Usually a heat wave isn't accompanied by thick cloud cover that shades your solar panels.

It can kill your (human) staff though.

Re: Intel breaks ground on $20B Arizona plants as U.S. chip factory race heats up

#175

Post by kcb »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #68
valine wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How exactly do you expect to build an EV without ICs? We’ve already tried cars without ICs, they’re noisy polluters. You talk about sustainability like we weren’t pumping carbon into the atmosphere before computers. Also maybe your job is such that you can get by with and old power hungry cpu like the core 2 duo, most people can’t.

Power hungry is not a term I'd use to describe a Core 2 Duo. Or do CPUs need more power to run as they get older? That would be news to me.

It surely needs a lot more power to do the same work as a modern CPU. Like if you were encoding a video on it where against a modern CPU that may use the same power but finish many times sooner.

Re: Intel breaks ground on $20B Arizona plants as U.S. chip factory race heats up

#176

Post by hunterb123 »

arcticfox wrote: post #172
TrueDuality wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're taking raw untreated river/lake/aquifer water, purifying it to an incredible degree for the fab. When they use the water it gets cleaned again. Now that water can either be returned to the river/lake/aquifer or if you clean it sufficiently well it can go straight into municipal drinking water supplies. That's how this fresh water comes out of nowhere.

That doesn't seem right. As far as I know, rivers/lakes/aquifers are pretty much the definition of fresh water.

Yes they are the definition of fresh water, not purified water.

Running fresh water is relatively clean, but it doesn't mean there isn't giardia or other microbes / impurities.

Re: Intel breaks ground on $20B Arizona plants as U.S. chip factory race heats up

#177

Post by MagnumOpus »

MengerSponge wrote: post #153
da_chicken wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The biggest user of water here in Arizona are the commercial farmers. And farming has been booming in Arizona. I lived there about 10 years ago and even then there were a lot of complaints about all the tree farms (almonds, etc.) that were showing up in Arizona. Massive water consumption and virtually impossible to be sustainable in the desert.

The irony is that with current incentives, it's a self-reinforcing cycle. Nuts have a huge return on investment, so nut farmers can afford to buy even very expensive water, so they plant more trees, etc etc.

> nut farmers can afford to buy even very expensive water

(x) doubt

If they actually can pay for "very expensive water" i.e. water at the rates that residential/commercial users pay, then fair play to them. But from what I heard, they are only profitable by paying near-zero (orders of magnitudes less than other users).

Re: Intel breaks ground on $20B Arizona plants as U.S. chip factory race heats up

#178

Post by beebeepka »

josephcsible wrote: post #127
PerkinWarwick wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lack of Taiwan dependency may well avoid a world war.

I'd rather have another world war than for China to slowly but "peacefully" conquer the world.

That's how I know you imagine yourself to be on the winning side of this world war. Good luck with that. Not really, though

Re: Intel breaks ground on $20B Arizona plants as U.S. chip factory race heats up

#180

Post by josephcsible »

beebeepka wrote: post #178
josephcsible wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather have another world war than for China to slowly but "peacefully" conquer the world.

That's how I know you imagine yourself to be on the winning side of this world war. Good luck with that. Not really, though

I do think we would win in the end, but even if we didn't, I'd rather go down fighting than graciously accept our new CCP overlords.
Post reply on HN