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

To: Jim McMannis who wrote (98006)	3/11/2000 12:53:00 PM
From: Dan3	Respond to of 1571040

Re: How much does the chip that Playstation2 uses cost?... Since it's not an open market chip, I guess the "cost" is whatever Sony's accountants assign to it. It depends on how they allocate expenses on the joint venture, I suppose. It looks like fixed costs of whatever R&D was plus $500 Million to be amortized plus material and packaging costs for a rather large die (220mm2?). Process Parameters Gate Width 0.18 micron Power Supply 1.8 V (Core and IO) Power Consumption 15 Watts (estimated) Metal Layers 4 Total Transistors 10.5 Million CPU2 Die Size 17.0 x 14.1 mm2 Core Die Size 11.6 x 6.3 mm2 Package 540-pin PBGA geocities.com $45-$60? Maybe someone else (with real knowledge in this area) can make a reasonable estimate (as opposed to my WAG) of the cost of this chip. PS2: Sony Begins PS2 Chip Production Sony and Toshiba form new joint venture for PlayStation 2 microchip production. March 4, 1999 Sony Computer Entertainment announced today its joint venture with Toshiba to create dozens of large-scale production plants to create specialized PlayStation 2 microchips. The company will build state-of-the-art production lines at plants of Toshiba Corp and Sony Corp and will operate on SCE's behalf. Toshiba is expected to hold a majority stake in the joint venture (51%), with Sony Computer Entertainment holding the remaining shares (49%). The new firm will use production lines to be built in the clean room of Toshiba's plant in Oita Prefecture at the nifty sum of 50 billion yen. Sony plans to launch the next-generation game machine in Japan by the end of March 2000 and in Europe and the U.S. by autumn 2000, company sources said the same day. Source: The Nihon Keizai Shimbun psx.ign.com Regards, Dan