Intel Fires up Chip Production in Arizona

The new plant will employ 1,000 people to step up production of Intel's new 45nm chips.

While geeks around the world eagerly await the release of Intel’s 45nm Penyrn processors, the company has, up until now, had only one facility in Oregon working to produce them. Not anymore. On Thursday, Intel celebrated the opening of its $3 billion dollar “Fab 32” facility in Chandler, Arizona, which will take over mass production of the new chips.

The enormous new facility spans 1 million square feet – enough to swallow 17 football fields – and has 184,000 square feet of clean room alone. Once it is fully up to speed, it will employ 1,000 people.

Intel is billing their new Penryn processors as smaller and faster, but also more environmentally friendly. Besides their increased energy efficiency while operating, the processors are also lead- and halogen-free, and the process used to make them is cleaner. Intel claims the new facility actually reduces its environmental footprint by cutting global warming emissions by 15 percent.

The first 45nm processors will go on sale on November 12.