Intel Fab-4 - what does it mean?

December 10, 2004 10:49 PM

fab-4 - what does it mean? Is that where Intel made the 4004?
posted by Kwantsar to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Huh? The only Fab 4 I know about are these guys.
posted by Doohickie at 10:52 PM on December 10, 2004

Semiconductors have this habit of numbering the fabrication centers. I have no clue why. I don't keep track of them, although I was aware of Fab 25 and Fab 30
posted by majick at 11:14 PM on December 10, 2004

What majick said. Intel's wafer fab plant in Aloha, Oregon - it closed in 1996 or 1997, I believe. This page has Here's some of the older ones.
posted by milkrate at 11:21 PM on December 10, 2004

Semiconductors number their fab centers on parts for quality control and tracking purposes. If there's a problem in the field then they can track it back to a particular fab as well as a particular time and date and wafer. This helps them statistically correlate the problems. Is it just a defect on a single die? Is it a problem with the wafer or is it a process problem that's affected a batch or is it a design problem?
posted by substrate at 11:24 PM on December 10, 2004

This is probably not what you're talking about, but the old video card company "Number 9" was founded by a big Beatles fan. (Thus the company name.)

In particular I remember they had video cards called Imagine and Revolution. Their chip fabrication plant was called "fab four." I googled a bit and can't find any real sources to back that up, though.

Here's a (very brief) usenet posting about some Beatles references in their products.
posted by mragreeable at 7:39 AM on December 11, 2004