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

To: tejek who wrote (87024)	1/13/2000 8:22:00 PM
From: Process Boy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572357

ted - <Seriously, I wanted to ask another question re the .18 conversion....I was reminded that the AMD Fab 25 conversion was done in only 3 mos. So my take re AMD's conversion process was correct.> Not being there, I'm not sure how they could do that, except that only one fab to convert is a whole 'nother animal frm opening two brand new plants and converting several others, especially the new plants. There's virtually no way to shove equipment in and get it qualified any faster. And you certainly don't wait to start producing in these new plants until you get all the equipment up and running. That's expensive. PB

To: tejek who wrote (87024)	1/15/2000 2:59:00 AM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1572357

Tejek - Re: "I was reminded that the AMD Fab 25 conversion was done in only 3 mos. So my take re AMD's conversion process was correct. So why were they able to do it fairly quickly and Intel can't.... I was reminded that the AMD Fab 25 conversion was done in only 3 mos. So my take re AMD's conversion process was correct. So why were they able to do it fairly quickly and Intel can't...." AMD had one Fab at the time. Intel is converting 5 Fabs. Multiply 5 times 3 months - and you'll get 15 months. Do you think Intel's equipment vendors can deliver enough 0,18 micron pieces of equipment SIMULTANEOUSLY to FIVE individual fabs? Do you think Intel can install new sets of equipment (maybe 30% of each line) simultaneously ineach fab without screwing up EXISTING 0,25 micron production ? How long do you think it takes to generate 45 reticle sets - 0.18 micron - and qualify EACH reticle set in production for yields? Intel has a LOT MORE PRODUCTS being converted than just CPUs. Do you think Intel has FIVE SEPARATE MASK/Reticle shops to generate all 45 reticle sets fabs simultaneously ? And then quallify EACH Fab's 0.18 micron products through Intel's reliability program ? Do you think Intel has FIVE SEPARATE Reliability groups to qualify all fabs simultanelously ? And what do the 5 fabs do after 0.18 micron conversion is completed and the 0.25 micron lines are halted - and the reliability groups begin their 1000/1500 hours of testing (6 - 9 weeks) - sit around IDLE waiting for the readouts? Paul