Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Petz who wrote (63384)	11/11/2001 4:48:16 AM
From: hmaly	Respond to of 275872

John Re... Message #63384 from John Petzinger at Nov 11, 2001 3:08 AM If average die sizes stay around the 100 mm level, plus or minus, I wonder how beneficial 12" wafers are. With over 200 useable CPU's per wafer at typical yields, the total silicon cost per CPU is less than $13. Switching to 12" wafers might reduce that to $8, big deal. The silicon cost difference becomes even less for the sizes mentioned for Clawhammer. <<<<<<<<<<<<< What is the more expensive; the bldg. or the machines that go in it; or the costs of engineering the smaller processes? By teaming with UMC, AMD can save a lot on the last 2. And in the past 2 yrs. the Taiwanese have shown the ability to have as good as or better processes than anyone else in the world. So it makes sense for AMD to use UMC's expertise in man. just as AMD uses other's expertise for the chipsets. Plus the fact that UMC is combining with IBM and Infineon, means that their joint process is likely to be the world's best. As far as Intel is concerned. This will even out the playing field a lot, as a big part of Intel's advantage was in its manufacturing. The Taiwanese have shown however that they can compete with Intel on costs; and yields. So I believe that this will largely nullify Intels size advantage, and shift a lot of the costs of new machines and engineering smaller processes AMD would have had, onto the partnership.

To: Petz who wrote (63384)	11/11/2001 10:50:35 AM
From: milan0	Respond to of 275872

John re: "With over 200 useable CPU's per wafer at typical yields, the total silicon cost per CPU is less than $13. Switching to 12" wafers might reduce that to $8, big deal." I don't know if you include direct labor costs in your estimates, but anyway, (13$ - 8$) x 50 million CPUs per year sure pays for a lot of equipment's depreciation. To this day, I thought that Intel's spending spree on new plant and equipment was a real threat to AMD. IMO, AMD is wise to partner with a contract manufacturer. Mike