AMD is to spend $2.5bn upgrading its Dresden, Germany chip plant, primarily to replace its ageing 200mm-wafer fab with a higher-yield 300mm-wafer facility. The result: a fourfold increase in processor production in just under three years.

In part, that gain will come from increased production at Fab 36, AMD's current 300mm-wafer plant, which began punching out chips in October 2005. The company wants to raise output there by 25 per cent.