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

Re:Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest ch... by TheCondor on Friday January 21, 2022 @02:29PM (#30028755)

With a potential $100b investment, it's not about what they have now, it's about what will be in 20 years.

Ohio is a great place for this kind of corporate gentrification. As a CMU grad, I know there was a collective desire to get students to stick around, but there was better lifestyle, more money, etc.. leaving after school and a fairly large number of us weren't from the area to begin with. Something like this can be a game changer for the region, plus, there will be dozens of additional companies that set up camp and start up there for support.

If it really works and the region supports it and leans in, all of the schools anywhere near by will step up their engineering programs.

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Re:Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest ch... by NationalPark on Friday January 21, 2022 @03:06PM (#30029256)

Do chip plants employ many engineers? Seems like they would mainly need IT and facilities staff.

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Re:Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest ch... by tyrfing on Friday January 21, 2022 @05:22PM (#30030732)

Relative to economic output, not really. In absolute terms, yes, because the plants are massive and "facilities staff" misses a lot when you're talking about machines worth 150 million a piece, clean rooms, and billions in depreciation per year.

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Re:Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest ch... by AnimalMuppet on Friday January 21, 2022 @03:09PM (#30029286)

They keep the process parameters within the optimal zone. That is considerably more complicated than it sounds. They also work on incremental improvements.

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Re:Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest ch... by quocanh on Friday January 21, 2022 @03:42PM (#30029723)

From what I understand, a chip plant's workers have PhDs because when problems arise on the line, they require a lot of knowledge to fix.

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Re:Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest ch... by smaddox on Friday January 21, 2022 @05:20PM (#30030695)

The R&D fab(s) definitely have a high number of PhDs. I don't know about the production fabs. PhDs will definitely visit when starting up a new fab or process or when issues need to be addressed.

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Re:Intel's $20B Ohio factory could become world's largest ch... by s1artibartfast on Friday January 21, 2022 @05:52PM (#30030995)

If it is anything like BioTech, they will. I was shocked when I joined a large firm and realized that the person spending most of their day breaking down boxes and checking log books has a masters from Berkeley. Most of the techs running equipment have masters/Phds.

As I have come to realize, when a mistake or delay costs $XX million, it often makes sense to hire with high educational background. I have also come to realize that your bog standard MS or Phd isn't as talented as you might think.

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