Intel’s China-based Fab 68 will produce 65nm silicon exclusively when it goes online early next year, Intel has announced. The announcement is something of a surprise, since Intel had been restricted by US government export regulations from exporting high-end semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China, and when Fab 68 goes online, 65nm will be only two nodes behind the cutting edge.
We last covered Fab 68 two years ago, when a widespread rumor culminated in Intel’s announcement that it would construct a 90nm fab in China. Prior to this, government rules had prohibited any manufacturing in China on any process lower than .18 micron by any American firm, to protect American supremacy in semiconductor manufacturing for both economic and military purposes. Taiwan, whose TSMC and UMC are the world’s largest and most advanced foundries, enforced the same rule. As a result, competition within China was restricted to China’s own domestic fabs, which, with one exception, were unable to achieve less than .18 micron feature sizes. Lifting the restriction was a major step for the US in allowing semiconductor proliferation.
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