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

Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest chip plant

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 647 posts

Re: Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest chip plant

#131

Post by erosenbe0 »

randcraw wrote: post #118
rotten wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Ohio State University is in Columbus and if not the largest university in the world it is in the top 3.

Yes, but OSU is not especially well known for computer architecture. In comparison, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois are all top-5 schools in EE/hardware. And the Champaign area is even more affordable than Columbus. So choosing Columbus must have satisfied multiple constraints, some of which aren't obvious.

Champaign doesn't have sufficient infrastructure (think construction workers even) so they'd be looking at Chicago suburbs. This would make Labor costs way too high. Wisconsin would be a fantastic choice but Foxconn boondoggle probably ruined that possibility.

Re: Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest chip plant

#132

Post by dfsegoat »

qsmi wrote: post #90
ksec wrote: post #15

Intel said the same thing for Arizona as well. Initial $20B investment which could expand to $100B. So they are building it in two places. I wonder why they dont keep it all in Arizona? ( May be Tax Break, but I have no idea how Tax Break works in US ) And if you include their (expected) expansion in EUR, Intel is layering the foundation for Foundry Services. Compared to its half assed Custom Foundry in 2012/2013 wit…

Increasing supply chain resiliency by having multiple, geographically separated, sites this more of a thing now. https://hbr.org/2020/09/global-supply-chains-in-a-post-pande... "The obvious way to address heavy dependence on one medium-risk or high-risk source (a single factory, supplier, or region) is to add more sources in locations not vulnerable to the same risks."

Right. Interesting take on that below re: Taiwan/TSMC, etc:

https://www.supplychainbrain.com/articles/32482-the-world-is...

Re: Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest chip plant

#133

Post by ridgeguy »

galangalalgol wrote: post #106
SemAntics0 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Great Lakes region has a surprising concentration of advanced manufacturing skillsets. With large manufacturing facilities with extremely stringent quality standards like a bleeding edge chip fab there's going to be a enormous need for people with traditional manufacturing-specific support skillsets that are simply not available in large quantities anywhere else in the US. If the current administration's support…

the only thing an ev actually needs chips for is charge controllers which can be old fab tech, and motor controllers which aren't normal silicon or tiny feature size. Tesla is using silicon carbide, and gallium arsenide will probably be next. The Bollinger takes this route of minimalism. Ironically, an EV has less reliance on processing than a modern ICE vehicle.

I think it's gallium nitride (GaN), not gallium arsenide (GaAs).

Re: Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest chip plant

#134

Post by qsmi »

dragontamer wrote: post #83
qsmi wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> node names are entirely unrelated to any physical dimensions I agree they're not necessarily related to any particular transistor dimension but are you sure it's entirely unrelated to any physical dimensions? If so, here is a question I have. 28nm, 22nm, 20nm, 14nm, 10nm, 7nm, 5nm, 3nm. What progression is that? Why skip 6nm and 4nm?

A "full node" step is 1/2 the area of the previous. Since area is dimension-squared, 28 x 28 == ~800 area, while 20 x 20 == ~400 area. So 28 -> 20 is a "full node" decrease (ie: twice the transistors). --------- We can see the full-node step from 14nm -> 10nm as well: 14 x 14 == ~200, 10x10 == 100. So its a full node step. The next full-node is 7 x 7 == ~50, which is half of 100. After 7 comes 5, because 25 is half o…

That's an interesting explanation and somehow I never heard it explained that way before. It makes sense if one thinks of the transistor count doubling relative to where that company previously was, and not where the industry is. In the transistor density plot each curve is roughly x^2, but with different initial conditions.

https://www.techcenturion.com/7nm-10nm-14nm-fabrication

Re: Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest chip plant

#136

Post by bbreier »

galangalalgol wrote: post #106
SemAntics0 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Great Lakes region has a surprising concentration of advanced manufacturing skillsets. With large manufacturing facilities with extremely stringent quality standards like a bleeding edge chip fab there's going to be a enormous need for people with traditional manufacturing-specific support skillsets that are simply not available in large quantities anywhere else in the US. If the current administration's support…

the only thing an ev actually needs chips for is charge controllers which can be old fab tech, and motor controllers which aren't normal silicon or tiny feature size. Tesla is using silicon carbide, and gallium arsenide will probably be next. The Bollinger takes this route of minimalism. Ironically, an EV has less reliance on processing than a modern ICE vehicle.

Also the infotainment. And real questions because I'm genuinely curious: do driver assists (ABS, ASR, TCS) and their adjustments rely on processors? What about in-car adjustments to suspension height, ride firmness, throttle response (e.g. eco vs sport vs comfort modes)? Lane keep assist, blind spot checking, adaptive cruise control all seem like things that would require processing power as well.

Re: Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest chip plant

#137

Post by kesselvon »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #98
RC_ITR wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Semantically, damning water in the Great Lakes Watershed (how Columbus get's its water) is not THAT different from letting that water flow into Lake Erie and then piping it back. Point being, Ohio has very few long-term drought concerns.

There are actually extremely specific and intense rules about which parts of the country can take water from the great lakes and what burdens they incur when they do. It's not necessarily aligned with any specific jurisdictions either, I believe it's largely based on the boundaries of the watersheds. Or at least where the boundary was ascertained to be at some point. So yes it's very different, regardless of the sema…

The idea that the Great Lakes are going to be tapped to solve water problems outside the watershed is fall flat when they realize those Great Lakes states aren't going to sell off access like that.

I remember some moonshot proposal to pipe the water to the Southwest, which is wild.

Re: Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest chip plant

#138

Post by N1H1L »

gaoshan wrote: post #122

This is actually a brilliant location for them. One of those places that has much more going for it than people not from the region would realize. International airport, large rail depot, extremely low cost of living and a city/region that has more good restaurants and activities than might be expected. Ohio State University is in the city and is a huge school that is rapidly growing in academic standing. Road transi…

The midwest has some of the greatest engineering schools in the nation. I have been beating this drum hoarse for a few years now - but it's true. Specifically, members of the Big 10 conference are probably the best engineering schools conference in the world. Within 300 miles from Columbus (where you have Ohio State - Big10), you have Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, UIUC, Indiana, Purdue from the Big 10 along with Carnegie Mellon, Case Western and Pitt. Even the state of California doesn't have so many so good tech schools.

Re: Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest chip plant

#139

Post by newhotelowner »

qsmi wrote: post #67

Does anyone know why Intel would want to build a "mega-site" in the city of Columbus Ohio? Why not choose Cleveland Ohio where one has port access with an existing route to Europe? Fabs are international affairs, no matter where they're rooted, because just to keep the place running one needs a constant stream of parts from everywhere. It seems like being in a sea/rail/truck hub would be a logistics advantage. [1] ht…

I am in Columbus Ohio.

Columbus Ohio is one of the fastest growing city in the USA and MidWest. Population growth is high too. A lot of people from other Ohio cities are moving to Columbus Ohio. https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/columbus-among-fastest...

Ohio State University is very close to this site.

Huge immigration population with a science degree.

Columbus is within 600 miles of 60 percent of American population.

A lot of cheap farm land outside of Columbus area.

> Cleveland Ohio where one has port access with an existing route to Europe

Port is less than 2 hrs from this site.

Re: Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest chip plant

#140

Post by N1H1L »

MathCodeLove wrote: post #130

I've actually been considering a move to Ohio this June. Any suggestions for whetr in Ohio I should look? My main consideration is low CoL as I work remotely but I'd like there to be stuff to do within a reasonable driving distance.

Both Columbus and Cincy are great. Cleveland is iffy and too snowy in my opinion
Post reply on HN