Re: Just heard that Niles bashed Intel again. Dell too...
I wonder if Intel is going through a rough patch on yields. They've said they were ramping four FABs for Coppermine for the fall, and adding a fifth in the spring. I've got to think that volume corporate buyers aren't bringing in boatloads of new desktops this close to Y2K, and there has been a widely noted absence of fast Coppermines in the retail channel.
There hasn't been a sudden explosion of total demand, because memory prices are falling steadily, despite the production disruptions caused when the ramp to Rambus failed to materialize and the DRAM FABs had to switch back to SDRAM. AMD's total volume of system sales is by all indications up, at least modestly, so if Intel's volume were increasing as well, I'd expect to see SDRAM prices holding better. Given four FABs in production, little retail presence, subdued corporate procurements with Y2K coming up, and chipset issues that have limited available coppermine sockets, I've got to think that Coppermine yields are considerably worse than expected by Intel. Just how difficult is it to get consistent production with notched gates?
Daiki mentions "incredible yield problems" without any indication of source, and there could be some translation problems regarding his use of the word incredible:
pc-info.hypermart.net
Curiously, I'm not sure this is great news for AMD. Since AMD is not capable of satisfying more than 20 to 30% of the market right now, a temporary surge in demand while Intel sorts out some yield problems could leave AMD turning away customers and looking unreliable when, this time at least, it's not the case.
Do you have any estimates on current Coppermine yields?
Regards,
Dan
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seminews.supersites.net
At the launch, the company attempted to lay any manufacturing fears to rest by indicating the technology is available now from four fabs in Oregon, Arizona, Israel, and at Intel's headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif. A fifth fab, Fab 11 in New Mexico will be online in the first quarter next year producing Coppermines using Intel's 0.18-micron P856 manufacturing process
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