GOVERNMENT

EAST FISHKILL, NY -- New York State Governor George Pataki joined IBM President and Chief Executive Officer Sam Palmisano today to announce the opening of a new IBM 300 millimeter (mm) semiconductor facility, believed to be the most advanced of its kind. The new facility is a major addition to the IBM Microelectronics business, designed to satisfy growing customer demand for IBM's leading-edge chip technologies through high-end "foundry" manufacturing services, as well as IBM's custom and standard chip offerings. The state-of-the-art building will house both development and manufacturing, helping IBM more easily transfer its unique set of chip-making technologies into high-volume production. Work on prototype customer designs has begun and the facility is on-schedule to begin volume manufacturing later this year. "Technology continues to be one of our cornerstones in delivering value to our customers," said Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM president and chief executive officer. "We are reinvigorating our Microelectronics business and are confident that we have the right formula of technology and expertise with a business that is focused on the strategic areas that play to our strengths." The new 300mm facility will also play a major role in the ongoing collaboration between IBM, the State of New York and major New York universities, further establishing the region as a center for high tech talent, investment and innovation. "IBM's investment in East Fishkill reinforces the fact that the Hudson Valley and Upstate New York are going to play a leading role in the future of high-tech research and economic development," Governor Pataki said. "The world's most technically-advanced plant that IBM built here will anchor a renaissance for our economy, attracting new business investments and new jobs for years to come. We thank IBM for their commitment and look forward to the tremendous economic benefits our partnership will bring to New York." The new IBM 300mm semiconductor facility combines IBM's unique array of leading-edge chip-making technologies -- such as copper wiring, silicon-on-insulator (SOI) -based transistors and improved ("low-k dielectric") insulation -- with the economies of scale resulting from production of chips on larger, 300mm diameter silicon wafers. Some facts to put the facility and its products in perspective are included below: * the new facility totals 140,000 square feet in size; it contains 200 miles of piping and tubing, 600 miles of cable and wiring and two million pounds of ductwork; it was finished with 50,000 gallons of paint * activity on the process floor of the highly-automated manufacturing line is driven by over 1700 processors operating at over 1GHz speeds each and accessing over 110 terabytes of storage; this is more processing power than NASA uses to launch the space shuttle * the facility is designed to support the creation of chips with circuits smaller than 100 nanometers (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter) in size; a single 300mm wafer can hold up to about 50 billion transistors; chips produced on these wafers will have some structures comparable in size to viruses and DNA Demand for advanced technologies is growing in the chip industry, as customers look to improve the performance and function of their products. Many chip-makers, however, are finding it difficult to keep pace, as each new generation of technology becomes more challenging to master. This has created an opportunity for technology leaders like IBM.