this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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Intel's 916,000-pound shipment is a "cold box," a self-standing air-processor structure that facilitates the cryogenic technology needed to fabricate semiconductors. The box is 23 feet tall, 20 feet wide, and 280 feet long, nearly the length of a football field. The immense scale of the cold box necessitates a transit process that moves at a "parade pace" of 5-10 miles per hour. Intel is taking over southern Ohio's roads for the next several weeks and months as it builds its new Ohio One Campus, a $28 billion project to create a 1,000-acre campus with two chip factories and room for more. Calling it the new "Silicon Heartland," the project will be the first leading-edge semiconductor fab in the American Midwest, and once operational, will get to work on the "Angstrom era" of Intel processes, 20A and beyond.

I don't know why, but I've never thought of the transport logistics involved in building a semiconductor fabrication plant.

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[–] [email protected] 109 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Looks like they put the oversized load on a boat for as long as they could, but have to do the last leg by road.

[–] [email protected] 80 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I mean, everyone has been crying and whinging for years, decades even, that the USA needs to ramp up semiconductor fabrication in case shit goes south in Taiwan. We are finally getting some domestic production power and we're getting outraged by the traffic delays? America will sink itself because of our people's own addiction to comfort and complaining about any slight to that comfort.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Is this going to raise gas prices!!?!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (8 children)

Does anything NOT raise gas prices?

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The top two things any given American will complain about on a local level.

  1. The terrible condition of their local roads
  2. Roadwork to fix the terrible condition of their local roads.
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

I don't even think this is complaining about mild inconvenience, it's just outrage addiction that has taken over most of the country.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Yep, the fab plant is a little east of Columbus (just south of where I live actually). This is one of like 2 dozen "super loads" that has to make its way from the Ohio River up to the plant. I swear there is a website somewhere that keeps track of when the are coming, the routes they take, and the closures involved but my Google-fu is failing me now.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If it makes you feel any better it's probably Google that's failing, not you

[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Even before Google stopped working, I'm not sure the results of googling "super load" would have been what you are looking for.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Try "super loads AND when they are coming?"

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

Look at the bright side, once intel gets this new plant up and running cranking out next-gen chips, Google will be able to fail you even faster!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

As excited as I am to see my home city actually growing and gaining national attention, I miss the chill cow-town vibes. Traffic is only gonna get worse from here.

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[–] [email protected] 66 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The biggest news here is that semiconductor production is amping up in the states, which is good for national security and reduces reliance on Taiwan.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Slightly less good for the people of Taiwan.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 10 months ago

Ehhh. We are really just hedging our bets. As I understand it we are focusing on production of the older generations of chips. That frees up Taiwan to focus on the bleeding edge chips. Losing Taiwan would still be a massive blow to the global economy.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Thanks, Biden

The bigger news here is something from his administration is coming to fruition that creates American jobs and reduces foreign dependency on a major commodity for both civilian and military applications.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 10 months ago (5 children)

And not a single photo? The thing in the main photo aint it

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 10 months ago (2 children)

But how many football fields does it weigh?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 10 months ago (3 children)

About 4,000 washing machines.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Well a football field is 57,600 sq ft, and a cubic foot of dirt weighs between 110-140 lbs depending on composition. That means that an average football field at a depth of one foot weighs around 6,912,000 lbs.

This thing weighs 916,000 lbs. So it is 0.1325231481 football fields.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They did something similar with some transformers here in Australia, and unfortunately there were some possibly associated traffic incidents where people might have not been going the right speed and got rear-ended. One man died, even.

Please avoid the route, even when it is pulled over to "rest", as your fellow motorists may not be able to resist rubbernecking.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why didn't the transformers just drive themselves? Or better yet turn into airplanes?

/s

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I want a 916,000 pound super load in my ass

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Isn't Angstrom 10^-10 meters? And nanometers 10^-9 meters? So 20A (assuming A = Angstrom) is just 2nm?

Are they trying to say that by moving to this new era, they'll go single digit Angstrom i.e., 0.x nm?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (7 children)

Yes, but that is long past an actuall transistor size and just a marketing term.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (6 children)

Is Intel paying the state or country for this abuse of the logistics network? This feels like freeloading on a publicly funded piece of infrastructure.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 10 months ago

Road closures for oversize loads always cost money, sometimes on a per minute basis

[–] [email protected] 41 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I'm assuming the transport accommodations are part of the perk package (for lack of a better way to put it)

I have no insight into this particular plant, but in most big investments like this, the company is usually in talks with several locations negotiating for the best tax breaks, permitting accommodations, etc under the promise that it will bring skilled jobs to the area.

Basically, it's seen as an investment both from the company and the location's points-of-view.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

I'm a logistics professional with some project cargo experience. The transportation arrangements are almost certainly being made by a private company not related to Intel. There are only a handful of trailers in the country that can move something like this.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Intel will be paying people to build and work at the factory. Highly skilled labor that can't be shipped overseas easily. It will also likely bring other companies to the area because of access to those highly skilled workers. The state will likely make more a lot more back in taxes and economic growth than the cost of the transports.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

Intel also works with local community colleges to offer semiconductor specific training to be a manufacturing technician, and it's not a huge jump to be a maintenance/repair tech or jump to IT within the fab and in my experience all those roles from technician to IT pay fairly good wages high 20's to mid 30's/hr and up depending on experience.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The state will likely make more a lot more back in taxes and economic growth than the cost of the transports.

That's a nice thought but what we've seen throughout history is the polar opposite.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

Yup.

Without checking, I'm betting that Ohio gave them incredibly tax breaks that are nearly without end, meaning none of the money goes back into the local economy whatsoever

My states done it so many times now, and we don't have income tax, so none of the money goes back into the local economy on the executive side, only on the workers side, putting all the issues it causes on workers! Woo!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

I hope truckers, pilot car drivers and dispatchers will be making crazy money off this parade as well. Ohio exists, might as well make the best of it. XD

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

The investment in public infrastructure is not only for you to use on your car. Part of it is enabling the industrial growth of the region.

If every company had to build its own infrastructure, why are they paying taxes?

It would be a huge waste to have that much one-time infrastructure.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Wish they had a photo of the thing. That's not a 280 ft trailer.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

It was a 280 foot trailer but due to Moore's law, it has undergone multiple shrink cycles while still maintaining 280 feet worth of storage inside.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

I hope they're paying huge fees to the local DOTs...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Their stock is basically on sale right now. And the feds are throwing billions at them...

🤑

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