Semi: It's a good thing that you put in that qualifier "at least", otherwise, I would have had to say that your guess was incorrect. But I agree, "At Least", is in itself, a correct statement.
Also, I believe Petz was looking at it from the availability end… i.e. "at least half a fab" was producing NWs 12 weeks ago, or however long Intel's pipeline is, from wafer in to CPU delivery. Given your "semiconeng"-ness, it is logical for you to look from things from the "wafer in" side, whereas more consumer-oriented folks tend to approach it from the "shipping" (or "shipped", rather ;-)) side.
Like everyone else in the industry, Intel ramps slowly. They don't just fire up multiple fabs all at once and start spitting out NWs, hoping there were no errors / bugs / errata. If there was half a fab or so producing NWs 12 weeks ago, the number today is certainly significantly higher.
-fyo |
