AMD Puts Customer at Center of Chip Manufacturing in ISMI Opening Keynote Address

Dr. Douglas Grose, AMD Senior Vice President of Manufacturing, Technology Development and Supply Chain, Calls on Industry to Rethink Investment Priorities

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

AMD (NYSE:AMD) will present the morning keynote at the 4th International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI) Symposium emphasizing the need for a smarter, industry-wide approach to semiconductor development, production and delivery that better meets customer needs.

Dr. Douglas Grose, senior vice president of manufacturing, technology development and supply chain at AMD, will describe what he and a growing list of industry leaders see as strategic imperatives for the Next Generation Factory (NGF). "The industry can adopt a vision here today to better meet customers' needs with accuracy, agility and efficiency, in addition to the more traditional route of making wafers larger and transistors smaller," said Grose.

Dr. Grose's speech extends an ongoing NGF dialogue with integrated circuit manufacturers, material suppliers, tool vendors and industry analysts on how to maximize utilization of existing 300mm technologies and facilities before moving onto a larger, 450mm wafer size.

Building on its pioneering efforts in the adoption of Lean techniques and Automated Precision Manufacturing in semiconductor factories, AMD is joining with industry partners, including ISMI, to develop new tools and processes for further streamlining both front-end and back-end production. For example, current practice across the industry is to move wafers through the process steps in 25 wafer batches, but most of the tools can only process a few or even one wafer at a time, greatly increasing the amount of time it takes to process an entire 25 wafers, slowing the delivery to the customer and extending time-to-revenue for the manufacturer. Small Lot Manufacturing (SLM) and Single Wafer Tools (SWT) are proposed changes that would greatly improve manufacturing efficiency, but requires an industry-wide shift in thinking. Collaborating on addressing this issue and others magnifies the impact by distributing investments of time, talent and money across all the parties that ultimately benefit.

AMD's operations have already benefited from these NGF concepts. At AMD's Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany, AMD has realized significant cost and time savings, including a 26 percent reduction in monthly wafer costs, a 31 percent increase in wafer output and a 72 percent increase in labor productivity.

"With a disciplined focus on what's really important - delivering the products our customers want at the right time, at the right cost - we're already seeing impressive results across AMD, but we've only realized a fraction of the full potential of the Next Generation Factory," said Grose. "Our industry's future will be determined by our ability to make smart decisions and unite behind a common vision."

     Who: Dr. Douglas Grose, Senior Vice President of Technology
           Development, Manufacturing and Supply Chain, AMD
    What: Keynote address: A Call to Action on the Next Generation
           Factory
    When: Wednesday, October 24, 8:15 - 9:00 a.m. CDT
   Where: 4th ISMI Symposium on Manufacturing Effectiveness
          Hilton Austin Airport
          Austin, Texas
          http://ismi.sematech.org/ismisymposium/

About AMD

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) is a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets. AMD is dedicated to driving open innovation, choice and industry growth by delivering superior customer-centric solutions that empower consumers and businesses worldwide. For more information, visit www.amd.com.

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Source: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Released October 24, 2007