The bleeding intensifies......Intel to cut up to 6,000 jobs

[marmar]

AP via Yahoo!:



Intel to cut up to 6,000 jobs in factory shakeup (AP)
Posted on Thu Jan 22, 2009 6:55AM EST


SAN FRANCISCO - Intel Corp. plans to cut up to 6,000 manufacturing jobs as the company struggles with souring personal computer demand that has left its factories operating at less than their full capacity.

Capacity is critical in the semiconductor business, because chip makers that don't keep their factories running at full throttle are spending lots of money on facilities that aren't paying for themselves. Underutilized factories are cutting into Intel's margins, and were one reason the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company reported a 90 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit last week.

Intel said Wednesday that it plans to close three so-called "assembly test" facilities in Malaysia and the Philippines and will halt production at plants in Hillsboro, Ore., and Santa Clara, Calif., where older-style wafers were being produced.

The "assembly test" plants are where chip makers send their finished wafers to be sliced into separate chips, put into individual packages, and tested to make sure they work.

The wafers made at the Oregon and California plants targeted by Intel are smaller than the wafers on which the most cutting-edge chips are built. The smaller size means Intel can't squeeze as many new chips onto them. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090122/ap_on_hi_te/intel_jobs

[xchrom]

1. damn -- more people out of work. nt