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

To: Paul Engel who wrote (77974)	10/30/1999 11:23:00 PM
From: Cirruslvr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574098

Paul - RE: "So, Fab 16 will be one of the first - and EXPENSIVE - 300 MM wafer fabs to be built - and AMD will be the proud owner of one of the LAST 200 MM wafer fabs to be built !" One of the reasons I have been interested in Fab 16 is that, according to the News.com article, it would use larger wafers. I don't know too much about this industry, but it doesn't take a expert to realize that with a larger wafer you get more chips per wafer. So when Intel's new fabs begin to use 300mm wafers, Intel will have an even further CONSIDERABLE cost advantage over AMD which will allow Intel to have even more competitive prices. I don't know if current fabs can use 300mm wafers, but since Intel is building Fab 16 to be 300mm from the start I am going to assume so. If AMD wants to stay competitive with Intel, my guess is they will have to build ANOTHER fab. Intel's Fab 16 is expected in 2002 according to that News.com article, so giving Intel the technological lead, I would guess AMD would need a FAB like that of their own within a year. According to amd.com and amd.com it took AMD 2 years to make their current Fabs and however much longer from first silicon to first production (about 1 year according to the Dresden link). So if AMD is to remain competitive with Intel they may be thinking of making another fab right NOW. Of course another Fab will put even more considerable weight on AMD's financial shoulders which have sagged for such a long time. And it will also RAISE AMD's breakeven point which is already raising with Dresden depreciation. So the Athlon's success carries even MORE weight than I previously thought. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I wouldn't mind someone telling me I am wrong in my assumption that current Fabs can't use 300mm wafers. ;) BTW, this link - amd.com says Athlon production was planned for Q4 this year. And this link amd.com says - "Q6:When does AMD plan to begin production at Fab 30? A6:The company expects to begin production of AMD Athlon processors featuring copper interconnect technology later in the current quarter with first revenue shipments planned for the second quarter of next year. We plan to begin production of AMD Athlon processors at speed grades up to 1-gigahertz (1,000MHz) during the second half of 2000." So according to AMD, production will begin this Q, but they won't get money from the processors until Q2 next year. I thought it took 90 says from wafer start to the processor being ready?