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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Craig Freeman who wrote (76584)	10/22/1999 9:49:00 PM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1585031

Craig - Re: '." Simple math therefore equates one PII chip with 13 CENTS worth of silicon. ..Paul ... in your opinion, is the author correct?" NO !!! The RAW silicon cost is NOT the COST to produce a silicon die. The Production cost only BEGINS with the raw silicon as it is obtained form a Silicon Supplier. The wafer fab processing (within Intel's fab) required to turn a raw SILICON WAFER into an array of Pentium/II/III die costs anywheres from $1500 to $3000. It's like saying the raw amount of steel that is in a Mercedes only costs $350 to fabricate - therefore it only costs $350 to make a Mercedes ! Uh uh ! Paul

To: Craig Freeman who wrote (76584)	10/22/1999 10:03:00 PM
From: Elmer	Respond to of 1585031

Re: "Finally, it states "An eight-inch wafer, seen here under inspection light, will host more than 200 Pentium II processor chips." Simple math therefore equates one PII chip with 13 CENTS worth of silicon. I don't know if the author is right but if he is, then the cost of raw silicon for a CPU is less than the cost of a single cigarette. Even if you assume miserable yields, it should still be well under a buck per chip." Did it ever dawn on you that that wafer has to be processed in a >$1.5 BILLION fab to produce those Pentium IIs? EP