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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM)
QCOM 168.09+1.8%Nov 28 9:30 AM EST
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To: JohnG who wrote (32215)6/12/1999 4:57:00 PM
From: w molloy  Read Replies (1) of 152472
 
>> there appears to be something extremely difficult about making the CDMA ASICS. <<

No. It is extremely difficult to design them.

>>>One could postulate that there are very few foundries on earth that can do so efficiently and achieve the highest chip yields. It appears that with INTEL and IBM, Q may have the top two sewed up. <<<

Your postulate is incorrect. Making them isn't such a big problem, but their are tradeoffs.
Once you have designed your CDMA bits, you have to figure out how you want to fabricate them. The main question is - can I put everything onto one chip? One chip solutions are desirable because it makes the manufacture of the final device(i.e the 'phone) cheaper. However,
the more you cram onto a single piece of silicon, the lower the yield. The other decision to make is what process to use. The smaller
the lithography, the smaller the chip, and more power efficient.
To be able to utilise these new processes again is a design problem.

That is why QCOM et al pay their top ASIC chaps huge gobs of money.

Many companies use outside fabs to implement their ASICS.
The problem faced by QCOM (and CNXT,LSI, VLSI, DSPC etc) is getting
scheduled into a foundary that has proven yields for the process of choice.
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