Semi: AMD should well know, since they "copied" Motorola's Copper Process. All they had to do was implement it, and look
how long it took them, from Q2/99 (first silicon) until April 2000 (samples), looks like 12 months, vs Intel on the other
hand, who did not copy Motorola, developed their own Cu Process, and went from first silicon, to production in 5
months.
It SHOULD have been easier for AMD, but it looks like it wasn't.
Needless to say, you are fudging the issue "a tad" ;-).
It wasn't solely Moto's process, AMD did play a part in developing it (although, from what I understand, not anything near "half").
MOTO itself hasn't shipped a single chip on "their" .18mu copper process yet. (or maybe they just started? regardless, certainly much later than AMD).
-fyo |
