AUSTIN, Tex. -- About 200 additional workers will be laid off by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. here as the Silicon Valley-based company transitions its 200-mm wafer Fab 25 facility from microprocessor production to flash memories.
A new 0.18-micron flash memory technology is now being ramped in Fab 25, requiring fewer process steps and fab workers than AMD's processes for PC microprocessors, said an AMD spokesman.
The spokesman confirmed the decision to lay off more workers in Austin as AMD also prepares to shut down its two aging Fab 14 and 15 facilities--a cost-cutting move that was announced last year (see Sept. 25 story). About half of the 1,000 employees working in the two older fabs have already been laid off with the rest expected to leave the company by the end of the second quarter.
Once the two older fabs are closed and the 200 additional positions are eliminated, AMD will have a workforce of just over 3,000 employees at its Austin campus--about 1,200 less than a year ago.
"The transition to flash memory production will extend the life of Fab 25," said the AMD spokesman in a phone interview on late Wednesday evening. The 200-mm (8-inch) fab is now ramping a new 0.18-micron flash IC process into volume production, and the Texas facility will play a pivotal role in AMD's latest efforts to unseat archrival Intel Corp. in the nonvolatile memory segment.
After more than a year of disappointing flash memory sales and losses, AMD is now expecting its troubled memory group to bounce back with strong sequential growth in the second quarter. In the first quarter of 2002, the recovery hadn't yet hit the flash business and eroding average selling prices (ASPs) pushed AMD's flash revenues down 18.4% to $160 million in Q1 from $196 million in Q4 of 2001. But the "flash crash" is over, according to W.J. (Jerry) Sanders, chairman of AMD in Sunnyvale, Calif.
During a conference call with analysts last month, Sanders said AMD was gearing up for growth in the flash market and preparing a new weapon against Intel's flash lineup. AMD plans to launch its MirrorBit flash technology into volume production in Austin, giving the company the ability to pack multiple bits in a single cell for higher storage densities and lower costs with smaller die sizes (see April 19 story). AMD's MirrorBit technology will go up against Intel's two-bit-per cell Strataflash chips, which were introduced in 1997.
AMD's 32-bit and 64-bit microprocessor production has been transferred to the company's Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany, which is ramping production of copper-based 0.13-micron technology. The company's processor technology will also be the focal point of a technology alliance between AMD and Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp., which plans a joint-venture 300-mm fab in Singapore (see Jan. 31 story).
--J. Robert Lineback
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