Global Foundries fabs chip away at ecosystem

THE GOOD FOLK of upstate New York seem to be more than a little excited at the prospect of having a brand new semiconductor fab set up chip shop on their doorsteps. They hope AMD's spinoff, Global Foundries, will boost the area's economy and create fresh jobs.

Glo-fo's new fabs are set to occupy Luther Forest Technology Campus (LFTC), a lush green area lying squarely between the picturesque towns of Malta and Saratoga Springs on land that, we're told, used to mainly be occupied by pig farms (*cough*).

But as plans for the three 300,000 feet fab modules were officially unveiled at a recent press summit, the INQ couldn't help thinking it all sounded rather more like Global Warming than Global Foundries.

Mike Relyea, president of Luther Forest Technology Campus' Economic Development Corp, told journos that, despite striving to attract big semiconductor companies, the site would try to remain "environmentally balanced". However, he then proceeded to explain how green space would be synergetically melded with sewage plants, "hundreds of megawatts of power" and chip debris. It would, he insisted be "a beautiful, natural setting for technological innovation".

Seventy-two per cent of the site will purpotedly remain green and leafy as per an agreement with the town of Malta, Relyea told media, adding the project would be as "environmentally sound as possible".

But when the INQ asked whether any of the trees being felled to build the massive fabs would be replaced, we were told there would only be an effort to "replant where possible" - a fob-off if ever we heard one.

Lost and Foundries told press it was planning to build three modules on the campus, each expandable size wise to 300,000 feet. The plan for the big three is still all a bit hypothetical, with Glo-Fo currently only commited to one, but that hasn't stopped the state of New York coughing up $650 million in grants, building a brand spanking new water line to channel millions of gallons of Hudson H₂0 daily, and expand its waste disposal system to a state of the art sewage behemoth.

The new water line will purportedly be able to send nine million gallons of purified Hudson river water to the fab daily, although the fab's executives say they don't believe they'll ever need more than three million.

In fact, Global Foundries was reportedly told by the Empire State that whatever utility requirements it had, New York would triple them, such was its eagerness to land the business of the giant semi.

New York, it would appear, is keeping its word, with Glo-Fo's Terry Caudell noting the fab would have two seperate, private power feeds channeling in from different directions and passing through no less than four substations.

As for steps towards carbon neutrality and solar power, both are currently looking unlikely as both Glo-Fo executives and LFTC planners wormed their way out of an answer.

The best we got from them was that tenants would "get to choose" whether or not they wanted to go green and that despite massive state subsidies and tax breaks to lure the fab firms to the forest, the state drew the thin green line at subsidising eco friendly power. Seems that financially it's all about "going lean" rather than green then.

Also, some Saratoga locals told the INQ of concerns the fab would overwhelm the already-taxed traffic system in the area.

Not so, according to LFTC's rep, who said the site planners had carried out "numerous traffic studies" and decided all would be well if a load of roundabouts were depolyed in order to keep the flow of traffic moving along nicely.

The fact that Malta has  as yet refused to build any, however, may render at least some of the "numerous" studies all a bit worthless. µ