Intel expands chip-making plant

Associated Press

A pair of blue robotic "cars" travel along an overhead monorail track at the Intel Fab 11x plant in Rio Rancho, N.M., delivering Intel wafers, while workers cross between the plant's production and administrative buildings via a skyway. The robotic wafer handling system involves 3.5 miles of track and 165 "cars." Anticipating an eventual economic rebound, Intel Corp. recently expanded its chip-making plant in New Mexico at a cost of $2 billion. The Fab 11x plant will build microprocessors on 12-inch silicon wafers. The plant also will build Pentium 4, Pentium 3 Mobile and other processors.