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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC)

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3:59 PM EST

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To: Jay who wrote (30402)	8/26/1997 11:39:00 PM
From: Yousef	of 186894

Jay, Re: "Will it be a simple matter for a big state-of-the art fab to produce CPUs at commodity level (DRAM) production costs?" The simple answer is no. From a high level (30,000 feet) view, this sounds very reasonable and simple to convert a DRAM or ASIC Fab to produce high performance CPU's. Let me explain ... I basically group IC processes into three categories (ASIC, CPU & DRAM/Memory). Each of these types of processes have different needs for technology. ASIC's (Application Specific IC's, a good example is an embedded CPU+controller to run a printer) - This type of process needs medium to high performance FET's and a dense interconnect technology. CPU (a good example is the PII in .25um) - This type of process needs the highest performance FET's AND highest performance interconnect (combination of density and low resistance/capacitance). (Very performance sensitive products) DRAM/Memory (a good example is 16M DRAM) - This type of process needs low leakage FET's/high capacitance storage cells and high density interconnect. (Very cost sensitive products) Thus the processes have different needs and technical challenges. Just because you master one set of technical problems doesn't mean that moving to a new "type" of process will be possible. It would take the DRAM manufacturers at least one full generation (~2-3 yrs) to solve the process problems associated with making fast FET's and high performance interconnect. These are not insurmountable, but they do take time. It would be much easier for a DRAM manufacturer to "come up to speed" on an older technology like the .5 - .35um technologies and off load the K5 volumes so that AMD can concentrate on the K6. Make It So, Yousef

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