DATE: Thursday, October 23, 1997            TAG: 9710230549

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY AKWELI PARKER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SANDSTON                          LENGTH:   55 lines

POLITICIANS HELP TO CLEAR A PATH FOR $1.5 BILLION SEMICONDUCOTR PLANT

The tick-infested boondocks miles outside Richmond might not seem the most logical place to put a high-tech semiconductor factory.

But a sales team of state and local politicos convinced electronics giants Motorola and Siemens AG otherwise. The result is White Oak Semiconductor, the companies' joint project set on 210 sprawling acres.

``I recall in the spring, standing in the forest on this very spot,'' White Oak President Wayne Nesbit said Wednesday. He thanked area movers and shakers for cutting through red tape and getting utilities to a place even the employees refer to as ``the boonies.''

``These folks didn't want to dawdle around in permits,'' said Gov. George Allen.

The politicians' efforts allowed the 800,000-square-foot, $1.5 billion facility - the size of 13 football fields - to go up in 11 months.

More than 200 Virginia Power employees labored for 10 months to complete a substation and transmission lines to the isolated site - a project that normally would have taken 1 1/2 to 2 years.

``Everybody knew how important it was, to the state, to the local economy,'' said George Hudson, manager of bulk projects for Virginia Power.

Even before it was built, economic development folks loved pointing to White Oak as proof of Virginia's technological arrival as the ``Silicon Dominion.''

The facility has 700 workers and expects to employ 1,500 when it hits full production some time next year.

Figures weren't available on Hampton Roads' contribution to the worker pool, but White Oak spokeswoman Jody Bolstad called Hampton Roads a ``fertile recruiting ground'' for the high-tech operation.

``We have particularly looked at former military and military contractors who have electronics backgrounds,'' Bolstad said.

Next spring, White Oak will roll out its first product, dynamic random access memory chips, or DRAMs (pronounced DEE-ram).

But wait a second. As any propellor-head can tell you, DRAM sales have been in the tank since late last year. Low DRAM prices are part of the reason a $2,500 computer bought a year-and-a-half ago barely fetches a grand today.

Most DRAM chips made today are 16-megabit devices and the market is flooded with them. Big stockpiles caused DRAM sales to plummet 38.5 percent in 1996 and perhaps an additional 20 percent by the end of this year, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.

Will this mean scaled back production or less rosy employment numbers?

``Not at all,'' said Bolstad.

White Oak will make the Siemens 64-megabit SDRAM - the ``S'' stands for synchronous. The difference: a lot more memory in the same space or less.

As more everyday devices incorporate microchips, DRAM sales will bounce back, predicts the Semiconductor Industry Association. ILLUSTRATION: VP MAP

Henrico County

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