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1st Silicon's rough road to Malaysian Fabs
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two
years ago during the height of the Asian financial crisis.
Right now 1st Silicon's new fab is on
the brink of commercial production at the Sama Jaya Free
Industrial Zone in the city of Kuching, in the Malaysian
state of Sarawak. Last September, the foundry started its
first engineering runs and in December it produced a 0.25-micron
tapeout for a top U.S. fabless semiconductor company. But
in 1998, 1st Silicon had little more than the full cooperation
of the Malaysian government and an industrial park site
on the island of Borneo. Japan and the surrounding countries
in Southeast Asia were all reeling from financial market
crashes that began in 1997.
"We had some major hurdles to overcome
in the era of a major financial crisis," Loddo told Electronic News in early December. The perception was that that kind
of project couldn't be done at the time.
"But I didn't want to hear that. I said that people needed
to readjust their thinking about Malaysia," Loddo said.
While South Korea, Thailand,
Indonesia and other countries sought financial support from
the International Monetary Fund to stabilize their markets,
Malaysia's economy pulled through without outside assistance, Loddo said.
"It was difficult to persuade anyone
you could do this, but we had to go to plead our case before
the semiconductor industry, the financial community, suppliers,
technology partners and recruiters," Loddo recalled. "We
convinced all of these partners that we could make it happen.".
©
Copyright 2001 Cahners Publishing
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