The biggest blackout in U.S. history on Thursday affected the Northeast, Midwest and parts of Canada, including IBM’s computer chip fabrication plant in East Fishkill, N.Y. The result could be a delay in the shipping of Apple’s Power Mac G5, according to an eWeek article .
The IBM plant saw production lines shut down for almost two days. With power restored on Friday afternoon, IBM engineers were bringing up the tooling equipment and preparing to begin production, IBM spokesman Bill O’Leary told eWeek. The East Fishkill plant is a foundry for IBM’s PowerPC G5 chip, which is used in the G5 line.
Risto J. Puhakka, a manufacturing analyst with VLSI Research, told eWeek that he expected a “loss of production for a few days until they bring everything back.”
Apple’s official word is that the G5s will begin shipping by the end of the month as planned, but postings by Apple customers on industry bulletin boards say they’ve been told to expect their new G5 systems in early September or mid-October, eWeek reported.