The automated manufacturing technology
Diversity
donuts
The 140,000-square-foot plant
Research
Designed to shift flexibly
The human operators who catch errors
Hundreds of processing machines
What enables IBM to make different kinds of custom chips?
Translucent paper nets
Stainless steel and glass
Nylon
Light nylon uniforms
Plastic pods
What are the silicon wafers sheathed in?
Measures taken of each component
Automation
Silicon wafers drop down from wires automatically into machines, sheathed in stainless steel and glass
500
300
20
Less than 1000
The 300-millimeter silicon wafers are shuttled around the facility in enclosed plastic pods, which ride on overhead track before being lowered down from wires automatically into machines. Finally, they are sheathed in stainless steel and glass
Conveyor belt transport
What are the steps that are required for every stage of fabrication?
As the wafers are the size of a standard pizza
Since the processing machines are self-enclosed
Since they seem to wear space suits
Since they wear light uniforms, shoe coverings and hair nets
This is because they wear light nylon uniforms, light blue shoe coverings and translucent hair nets made of paper
They make donuts
Why do operators at the East Fishkill factory look like workers in a bakery?
More costly
Wear light nylon uniforms, light blue shoe coverings and translucent hair nets made of paper
Highly automated
Advanced technology
As workers in a bakery
They wear hair nets and blue uniforms
They wear vinyl hats and coats
They wear heavy metal shoes and a white lab coat
What is the brief summarization of the appearance of the operators' uniforms as described above?
300 mm
The size of a donut
300 millimeter
The size of a standard pizza
One thousandth the width of a human hair
500 mm
The width of human hair
How big are the wafers that are not touched by human hands?
Envisioneering
Doherty
East Fishkill
IBM
East Fishkill factory
What is the name of the factory where Richard Brilla is a Director?
Less than one-thousandth the width of a human hair
140,000 square feet
Tiny
500 millimeters
300 millimeter silicon
Fine-tune
What is the approximate size the circuits etched in the chips as described above?
The factory is highly automated and designed to shift flexibly to produce many different kinds of chips to suit demand. "The diversity is the big difference with this plant," said Richard Doherty, president of Envisioneering, a research firm. "It gives IBM the capability to make so many different kinds of custom chips, and the world is going to custom chips." The 140,000-square-foot plant is a testament to advanced manufacturing technology. The 300-millimeter silicon wafers -- about the size of a standard pizza -- are shuttled around the facility in enclosed plastic pods, which ride on overhead tracks. They drop down from wires automatically into machines, sheathed in stainless steel and glass, for each stage of processing and fabrication. Throughout the 500 processing steps, which typically last 20 days, the wafers are not touched by human hands. The circuits etched into the chips are less than one thousandth the width of a human hair. Human operators are there to monitor the systems, catch errors and fine-tune the production process for maximum efficiency. Because each of the hundreds of processing machines is self-enclosed, and essentially airtight, the uniforms operators wear are less constricting than in the previous generation of chip plants, which looked like space suits. The operators at the East Fishkill factory wear light nylon uniforms, light blue shoe coverings and translucent hair nets made of paper. They look more like workers in a bakery. Yes, said Richard Brilla, director of the new facility, "but the donuts are a lot more costly here." Each wafer, holding hundreds of chips, is worth $6,000 to $10,000 apiece, depending on what insulation, circuitry and materials are used. 