Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Intel's Rio Rancho fab hit by Act of God
The Inquirer ^ | July 24, 2002 | Mike Magee

Posted on 07/24/2002 6:12:42 AM PDT by JameRetief

Intel's Rio Rancho fab hit by Act of God

Wafers toasted, roasted by lightning

By Mike Magee: Wednesday 24 July 2002, 09:49

Mageek made to sweat in Albuquerque plant pic (c) Intel 1999LOCAL NEWSPAPER the Bradenton Herald reported Monday that Intel's Rio Rancho plant in Albuquerque was hit by a bolt from the blue, temporarily shutting down production at the leading fab.

The report said that Intel lost $800 million worth of chips because of the lighting strike.

That sounds like an overestimate to us, unless the lightning strike really ripped through the facilities.

The paper quotes a fire expert from the US National Lighting Safety Institute as reporting that the problem could be insufficient lightining conductor facilities at the fab. As the picture in the link below shows, thunderstorms are quite common in this part of the US.

This is a big surprise, although we've been on an extensive tour of the Albuquerque plant on Rio Rancho road and have noticed that the back up plans there aren't perhaps as good as you'd expect from a top notch firm like La Intella. We noticed there appeared to be no back up electricity supplies, for example.

There are some other problems with Rio Rancho. Fabs use an incredible amount of water and Albuquerque, in general, has something of a water shortage.

While on our tour, we also discovered that if you were going to sneeze while you were in your bunny suit, you had to bend over and put your face as close as possible to the vents in the floor, so as to avoid contaminating the expensive chips.

Intel could neither confirm nor deny the reports of damage at press time. µ

See Also
Top Intel fab at centre of huge storm Nothing happened that time

INQUIRER satellite flies over Intel fab


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; News/Current Events; Technical; US: New Mexico
KEYWORDS: 800millionloss; intel; lightning; wafers

1 posted on 07/24/2002 6:12:42 AM PDT by JameRetief
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: JameRetief
They should invest in one of Mr. Franklin's lightning rods.
2 posted on 07/24/2002 6:27:40 AM PDT by Physicist
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson