Fishkill Plant Affected by Blackout

[Sun Baked]

Originally posted by lumiere -- Power outage brings down IBM's G5 production line (http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=8300945231&m=4730924085)
As reported by eWeek.

Power outages struck IBM's computer chip fabrication plant in East Fishkill, N.Y., affecting production as key products for Nvidia and Apple ramp up.

Looks like the delays aren't that serious, although it is August, and supposedly the G5s are due by the end of the month. (BTW, I usually lurk the CPU forum, but I suppose this is probably MacAch material.)

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1221912,00.aspOuch :eek:

Wonder how this will ripple through the supply chain?

Hopefully the day or two delay won't get magnified as is goes down the chain.

[Powerbook G5]

I didn't even think about that. Hopefully it won't cause that much of a delay in anything!

[MacRumors]

eWeek reports (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1221912,00.asp) that blackouts which affected cities in the U.S. and Canada yesterday, brought production at IBM's Fishkill plant to a slow.

The plant shifted into maintenance mode after being hit by the power-outage, bringing production tools to a safe halt. Production should restart later on Saturday. The Fishkill plant is the location of the production of the new PowerPC 970 (G5) to be used in the PowerMac G5s.

[MrMacMan]

Yeah so they lost power from 4 PM till lets say 8 AM, eh oh well, I doubt they were offline for the day.


I doubt something significant.

[Powerbook G5]

Damn...I guess those G5 PowerBooks won't be coming out next Tuesday... ;)

[Capt Underpants]

Seems like the fishkill plant is just having problem after problem. First, it was rumored that the plant was having production problems, and not it will be shut down for a couple of days. No fun for IBM.

[Billicus]

Doh...That'll slow down shipments of G5's even further...:eek:

[coconn06]

Would anyone expect this to cause PowerMac G5 delays, or would that production have already been run (*i sclueless on timeline for chip production*)?

-Colin

[MattG]

You'd think a multi billion dollar plant like that would have some generators installed for emergencies like this!

[Sun Baked]

If you look at the new MacWorld magazine, the PowerMac's U3 System Controller is also being fabbed by IBM.

There was some talk that the controller may be on the same process as the PPC970, so it may also be sitting idled at the Fishkill plant.

So will the few days delay end up impacting the production/shipping schedule or not.

It'll at least be a good excuse for any schedule slip.

[seamuskrat]

Its my understanding that G5 chips are fabbed at MORE than 1 IBM plant.
That said, according to news articles the number of chips they can produce in a day would mean to double th eG4 tower sales Apple had last quarter they would only need to fab for 12 days.

From I.T. people in Armonk NY the fishkill plant has never been more than 1/4 operational so this is not such an immediate threat.

I suspect the Fishkill plant will be used for faster, more effieicent chip with higher yields once its operational. So the 3 gig G5 Steve Promised next June would come out of Fishkill. But 970 and Power4, etc are still being made at other facilities (Do a search on CNET for the articles)

[fpnc]

Originally posted by MattG
You'd think a multi billion dollar plant like that would have some generators installed for emergencies like this!

Yes, it definitely should. I worked as a process engineer at an IC fabrication plant way back in the mid-80's and we had our own emergency generators for just this reason. Of course, they only supply enough power for you to perform a controlled shutdown of key portions of your manufacturing line. You can't continue to run at full production.

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by MattG
You'd think a multi billion dollar plant like that would have some generators installed for emergencies like this!


It does. And just like fpnc mentioned it gives enough power for the plant to safely shut down.


Lethal

[arn]

Originally posted by MattG
You'd think a multi billion dollar plant like that would have some generators installed for emergencies like this!

it does. Read the article.

arn

[alset]

I wonder if Apple will use this as an excuse for missing target dater deliveries.

Dan

[fpnc]

Yes, I was waiting for this announcement. Whether this will have any true impact on the G5 introduction is, I think, uncertain (I believe that it should not).

However, I'm afraid that Apple may see this as a mixed blessing. Since it probably won't have any significant affect on the timeline but now they can use it as an excuse if they miss the end of August shipping deadline for the G5 pre-orders.

One can imagine a press release from Apple, "As a result of the widespread power failure in the northeast, shipments of the IBM-produced G5 processor have been delayed. Therefore, Apple must regretfully delay initial shipments of its new Power Mac G5 until mid-September 2003." ;-)

Shouldn't happen, I hope.

[tsugaru]

Quote from the article:

"...and the Canadian province of Ottawa without power, an area where an estimated 50 million people live..."

You'd think that a journalist for eWeek would know that Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. However, as above mentioned, it is merely a city in Ontario, which was the province that was affected by the outage.

In response to the Fishkill plants, I hope they ramp up production. I'm waiting for my G5.

[mrothenberg]

>>You'd think that a journalist for eWeek would know that Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. However, as above mentioned, it is merely a city in Ontario, which was the province that was affected by the outage.

tsugaru: Thanks for the sharp eye ... We were running a little short-handed today because of the blackout, and that error slipped through.

It's fixed now; I hope our northern neighbors will forgive us!

Matthew Rothenberg
Managing editor
Ziff Davis Internet

[obilix]

Originally posted by mrothenberg
I hope our northern neighbors will forgive us! [/B]

dude...it's still not updated... :rolleyes:

ob....

[Shrike_Priest]

Wasn't the PPC970's supposed to be made in Ireland as well?

And I would think they have already fabbed a hell of a lot of proccessors, so it wouldn't delay the first batch of G5s. It might make a dent on the supply after the initial ones though.

[Frohickey]

Uh-oh.

I know that losing power is not a good thing, especially if you are using it to make computer chips.

Hopefully, IBM will figure out which wafer lots to throw out as garbage (or make into keychain fobs) and which ones to make into processors and controller chips. I know that sometimes, it takes them awhile to get their line tuned up again to make good chips again.

I remember when Taiwan lost power during an earthquake. Made getting chips from the factory there dicey. For a bit of time, everyone was wonder if the chips on the boards being made were from an 'earthquake' lot or not, since they were unreliable to use.

[aethier]

Originally posted by tsugaru
Quote from the article:

"...and the Canadian province of Ottawa without power, an area where an estimated 50 million people live..."

You'd think that a journalist for eWeek would know that Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. However, as above mentioned, it is merely a city in Ontario, which was the province that was affected by the outage.

In response to the Fishkill plants, I hope they ramp up production. I'm waiting for my G5.


the funny part is that the whole of Canada only has 32 million people..:o

aethier

[cb911]

oh boy... that's not really great news. shouldn't affect them too much though.

[fpnc]

Originally posted by aethier
the funny part is that the whole of Canada only has 32 million people..:o

aethier

Not really, in the original (full) quote it was clear that they were talking about both the U.S. and Canada. See where the "..." leads into the section on Canada.

[BigJayhawk]

Originally posted by aethier
the funny part is that the whole of Canada only has 32 million people..:o

aethier

The 50 million represents TOTAL outage -- not just Canada (whether the article was written that way or not).

[ZeppelinArmada]

I would imagine that the processors for the initial release must already be fabricated as it takes time to ship assemble and reship the machines. My G5 dual 2Ghz doesn't ship until October anyway so one or two more days won't phase me much.
October ... sigh.

[big]

ok, so I broke down and bought a used 1ghz G4 powerbook, so glad I did. I'll wait for the G5 powerbooks next year to spend the big money....

YEAH! no more waiting on edge for me.

now I check apples site & macrumors only twice a day.

[XnavxeMiyyep]

Who would rate this news positive?

[SeaFox]

Originally posted by XnavxeMiyyep
Who would rate this news positive?

Maybe the positive part is that emergency generators kicked in, alllowing the plant to come to a safe halt. Sounds a lot better than "The plant's equipment came to an abrupt stop after being hit by the power-outage, damaging some production tools. Production should restart in six to eight weeks once IBM has time to fully investigate the assembly line and make necessary repairs."

[Belly-laughs]

... and now mac users should sue the government too - we want our G5´s on time :)

Did you hear the presidents comments on the power grid break down? Poor man. That´s a stupid child trapped in an old man´s body.

[Titian]

Well, here is then another reason to produce stuff in third world countries rather than in North America. :eek:
:D

[rdowns]

Originally posted by XnavxeMiyyep
Who would rate this news positive?

Workers from the Burlington, VT IBM chip mfg. facility?

According to MacWorld (current issue, page 9), the G5 is being manufactured in Fishkill and Burlington, VT.

[robotrenegade]

I'll wait to buy a G5 now.

[yoshi1013]

It makes me feel all warm and sunny inside to know the types of people we have in charge.

We have Bush saying "gee, hmmm, I think the power grid needs to be modernized or something."

And we have Bloomberg setting up an emergency website for New Yorkers without power.

[sarge]

"It makes me feel all warm and sunny inside to know the types of people we have in charge" - yoshi1013

Question:
What do you call someone who has all the power in the world, but is still in the dark?

Answer:
Mr. President

[danruiid]

Originally posted by MattG
You'd think a multi billion dollar plant like that would have some generators installed for emergencies like this!
Well, they do! Emergency generators aren't meant to continue production, only bring it to a safe stop. Same in many non-critical datacenters (where I work). People just don't realize how expensive and difficult complete generation can be....

:p

[Wonder Boy]

Originally posted by Shrike_Priest
Wasn't the PPC970's supposed to be made in Ireland as well?

I was only a economic geography minor, but is having a plant in Ireland transport cost effective?

[themadchemist]

Originally posted by Capt Underpants
Seems like the fishkill plant is just having problem after problem. First, it was rumored that the plant was having production problems, and not it will be shut down for a couple of days. No fun for IBM.

Yeah, and I hope this plant doesn't become a scapegoat if IBM can't meet its ambitious roadmap.

I hope that Fishkill doesn't become G5-kill.

[Wonder Boy]

Originally posted by rdowns
Workers from the Burlington, VT IBM chip mfg. facility?

According to MacWorld (current issue, page 9), the G5 is being manufactured in Fishkill and Burlington, VT.

Burlington is the home of the G5 AND Phish?! Nice.

[rjgjonker]

Originally posted by Wonder Boy
I was only a economic geography minor, but is having a plant in Ireland transport cost effective?

Yes, since Apple assembles the G5 in Cork, Ireland.

[SubGothius]

Originally posted by Wonder Boy
I was only a economic geography minor, but is having a plant in Ireland transport cost effective? It is when you sell computers in the European market, as well as the USA. I don't think all G5s are produced in Ireland, however; some are probably assembled in Sacramento and/or Taiwan.

Speaking of manufacturing plants sited in Ireland, I couldn't help but think of a certain other product wearing a bare brushed-sheetmetal skin (http://www.entermyworld.com/)... (Tho' hopefully the G5 will enjoy a better long-term fate! :-)

[AidenShaw]

is having a plant in Ireland transport cost effective?

Some EU contracts favor "local" manufacturers - by assembling in Europe Apple can compete as a local company.

[Shrike_Priest]

and if they assemble in europe, the europeans shouldn't be too far after the US customers in getting their G5s.

There's only two more weeks left of august.... Gaahh....

I want me G5 darnit.

[AngryAngel]

I don't think there is a factory for microprocessors of any significance in Ireland, especially not making the PPC 970.

Apple assemble in Ireland because importing parts into the EU is a lot cheaper than importing finished products. And Ireland has lower labour costs than other areas in Europe.

[Bruja]

With all that we've experienced these past few days, there has to be legitimate lew-way. This isn't like Apple being un-proffessional and blaming their short comings on a more un-proffessional company like Moto..