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Hillsboro, Oregon
New technologies create new jobs. Making microprocessors is such a complex process that it has required people to learn a wide assortment of completely new skills and disciplines. Chip architects, for instance, are responsible for constantly developing the latest circuit designs in a never-ending quest to fit more transistors on a chip, thus increasing performance. Intel's first microprocessor, shipped in 1971 for Japanese calculators, held 2,300 transistors; the Pentium® 4 processor, released in 2000, contains more than 42 million—18,260 times more transistors. In Hillsboro, Oregon, and other places around the world, the race to increase chip performance continues.
Many other types of jobs have been created in the actual production of the chips. The culture behind the scenes of chip fabrication is perhaps the most fascinating element of the process. The world's largest "fab," or chip fabrication factory, is in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, where production never stops and the clean rooms alone cover the area of three football fields. An otherworldly atmosphere plays host to the technicians, who spend their 12-hour shifts encased in "bunny suits." Workers wear this required garb over their clothes to keep minute particles such as dead skin cells from contaminating the microscopic circuits.
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