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

To: ericneu who wrote (84305)	12/29/1999 3:26:00 PM
From: Scumbria	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572921

Eric, It doesn't matter what testing tools and methodologies you use. The chips themselves (not to mention their environment) are too complex to ensure absolute perfection. I agree. All engineering is done using tolerances. For example, a Mars lander may only be specified to go 99% of the way to Mars, rather than the entire distance. Scumbria

To: ericneu who wrote (84305)	12/29/1999 5:14:00 PM
From: Bill Jackson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572921

Eric, I am not so sure. With 20 million transistors there will be a yield problem, but these many transistors exist in functional groups, each one of which can be tested in emulation and then in isolation and finally to perfection. Then the functional groups are tested in emulation interactively and then they are put down on silicon. By reducing the exhaustive tests to the smaller assemblies and then getting them perfect the task shrinks to a large, but finite task. The skills that AMD gained from nexgen may have been critical in getting so far so fast. AMD might have a more elegant set of development, emulation and test methods.AMD may have a more creative environment than Intel, (which some call InHell). We have seen how Intel workers dare not use their names on SI,, so Intel is very control oriented. AMD workers? are there any on SI who are open about their employer? So in that aspect they may both be bosses from hell. The david..goliath system comes to mind. Bill