Hey Tony,
<Bob, I wonder why so many different clock frequencies scrunched up against each other by AMD, right up against 400 MHz?>
If you remember, Intel did the same thing with the Pentium line: 60, 66, 90, 100, 120, 133, 150, 166, 180, 200, 233. This was back in the days of 0.8 micron, 0.6 micron, on down to 0.35 micron. If you remember, Pentium 90 and 100 was the shrink from Pentium 60 and 66. However, the Pentium 90 was plentiful, while the Pentium 100 was scarce. Then once Intel's yields went sky high with 0.35 micron, Intel had to start clock-locking in order to sell chips at lower frequencies.
Now it's AMD's turn to wrestle with yields. Although AMD seems to be doing all right, they still don't feel confident enough about their 400 MHz yields, which is why they had to release other speeds like 380 and 366 MHz. Not that their 400 MHz bin-split must be in the 1% range like a certain analyst claims. It's more because AMD wants to become a big boy, so they can't let OEM's down with less-than-stellar yields on any one part.
This is all my humble opinion, of course.
Tenchusatsu |
