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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Amy J who wrote (137178)	6/12/2001 1:00:20 AM
From: Paul Engel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

Amy - re: "how long does it take to manufacture chips? I seem to recall you saying it takes a month or two? " That all depends on the manufacturer and a zillion variables. In Intel's case, the time for wafer processing was about 6 to 8 weeks - from Wafer Start to Wafer out. Next, the wafers need to be "sorted" - that is, each die site on the wafer is tested for DC parametrics and functionality. Bad devices are are identified at this stage. Sort can take several days to a week or more. Following this, the sorted wafers are sent to assembly - generally off-shore (usually air-freight) - and this operation can be 2 to 4 weeks - depending on "loading" of the assembly house, prioritization, etc. Following assembly, the completed device/module will undergo final testing - in a handler that heast the component up to high temperature (80 - 110 Deg. C) and a full functional test, AC and DC parametric testing, and speed testing is performed. This testing is quick ( several minutes/device) but the overall time consumed may be days - sometimes a week or more - again, depending upon factory loading. Finally, marking and packing and shipping must be performed. All-in-all, three months - start to finish - is quite typical. Variations of a few weeks in either direction are possible. Your problem of a device being out of stock and on allocation seems quite unusual for the current econmic climate. What type of device is it ? Paul