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Thursday, September 9, 1999

DEAN HANSON / JOURNAL

Clyde P. Haupt tours the visitor center at Intel Corp.'s Rio Rancho plant.

Intel Takes Visitors Behind Chips

By Ben Moffett
Journal Staff Writer
Museums can be stuffy places filled with bones, old furniture or wagon wheels.

DEAN HANSON / JOURNAL

A "bunny suit" worn in Intel's clean rooms is on display at the company's Rio Rancho visitor center.

Maybe that's why tour coordinator Terry Stuart doesn't call the exhibit rooms at Intel Corp.'s Rio Rancho site a museum.
"It's not a museum. It's a visitor center," she says.
And the visitor center she runs is anything but stuffy.
"It's a challenge to keep exhibits current here," Stuart says. "The technology moves faster than the exhibit industry."
She points to an exhibit that shows how the width of integrated circuits has shrunk from 12 microns (a micron is a millionth of a meter) in 1970 to .4 microns in 1995, when the exhibit was installed.
"Now its width is .25 microns," she says, "and shrinking."
That exhibit might soon be relegated to the recycle bin, joining similar ones mothballed earlier this month in a complete revamping of one of the center's two rooms.
The updated room features computer stations armed with the latest in educational and entertainment software -- a "big hit with the kids," according to Stuart.
The favorite, she says, is the Intel Create and Share Camera Pack, which includes a video camera about the size of a computer mouse that can be mounted on the monitor.
With the camera pack, visitors can build a movie, create a post card or stare at their own image on the screen.
Stuart says by the end of the month, when the monitors are hooked up to the Internet, users will be able to send video e-mail or make a video phone call to friends using stations within the room.
They can also play games called Video Brush and LegoCad -- where one can build a vehicle to get out of a predicament -- or watch an Intel public service video called "Water Smart."
"These games are very popular," she says. "We try to limit the stay here to about 30 to 40 minutes."
The water-saving video is an in-depth look at some of New Mexico's water problems, including a review of the status of the aquifer in New Mexico and the Bernalillo and Sandoval County areas.
The center also has an exhibit on recycling and shows some of the steps Intel takes to recycle 60 percent of the material it uses, up from 25 percent a few years ago.
When visitors first enter the center, they see exhibits on the chip-making process and the science behind semiconductor manufacturing, says Stuart.
The first exhibit is a "bunny suit," presumably worn by an employee named Les D. Fex (for "less defects.") A "bunny suit" is attire worn in a "clean room" where chips are manufactured.
"I frequently explain to guests how a clean room is thousands of times cleaner than a hospital operating room, and invite them to have their next operation here," Stuart says jokingly. "I explain to them how a speck of dust can ruin a chip, and how a person's exhaled air is filtered before it goes back into the room."
Another exhibit is a photo of a fingernail-size original Pentium chip, blown up to about 5-feet-by-5-feet, revealing a maze of circuitry that could not otherwise be seen.
Stuart says the visitor center staff conducts about 160 guided tours a year, mostly to school groups.
Last year, 3,000 visitors were counted on the tours, but she makes no attempt to count walk-ins.
The visitor area is right off the main lobby, and one of the few places at the plant that doesn't require security clearance.
Tour groups are limited to 20 people and reservations should be made by calling 893-TOUR. The exhibits are free.
Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Visitors can expect to spend about 1 1/2 hours on a tour.