Steve - Re: "Also note that Intel is simply not taking its foot off the production peddle, even with signs of slacking demand. It makes sense to me. It is extremely difficult to nail the supply/demand issue on the nose. Given this then, Intel needs to choose between the lessor of two evils; having too little product or having too much. It is clear to me, and I think Intel, that it is far worse to have too little product, as was the case the past year. The results of not enough product is that your competitors will take market share and mind share. "
Superb analysis - THANKS !
Yes - Intel is also (Barrett re-iterated this) pushing forward with their 6 billion dollar capital expansion for this year.
New fabs in Colorado, New Mexico, Ireland, Massachusetts, and Arizona are under construction - while Intel is also "farming out" the older i810 chip set.
Clearly, Intel sees future needs for larger die - hence more wafers - for both Flash, CPUs - both x86, IA64 AND XScale, as well as supporting chip sets and peripherals.
By this time next year, if Pentium 4 and ITanium are doing well, and the 0.13 micron copper process is kicking in, AMD will be on the run trying to dodge the onslaught of Intel's technology and manufacturing might.
Paul |
