Intel Corp. on Wednesday today disclosed plans to restructure some of its manufacturing operations and align its manufacturing capacity to current market conditions. The company will consolidate and streamline some older capacity without impacting the deployment of new, leading-edge 45nm and 32nm manufacturing capacity.

The company plans to close two existing assembly test facilities in Penang, Malaysia and one in Cavite, Philippines, and will halt production at Fab 20, an older 200mm wafer fabrication facility in Hillsboro, Oregon. Additionally, wafer production operations will end at the D2 facility in Santa Clara, California.

The actions at the four sites, when combined with associated support functions, are expected to affect between 5000 and 6000 employees worldwide. However, not all employees will leave Intel; some may be offered positions at other facilities. The actions will take place between now and the end of 2009.

The fourth quarter of FY2008 was dramatic for Intel, as not only revenue dropped below the level of Q3, but the pace of revenue decline was too high to predict it, the company indicated. Moreover, the company decided not to provide any official forecasts for the first quarter citing overall market situation and impossibility to predict any outcomes.

Intel reported fourth-quarter revenue of $8.2 billion, operating income of $1.5 billion, net income of $234 million and earnings per share (EPS) of 4 cents. The results included a billion-dollar negative impact from the previously announced reduction in the carrying value of the company's Clearwire investments.

Tags: Intel, 32nm, 45nm