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

To: kash johal who wrote (81477)	5/25/1999 12:03:00 AM
From: Tenchusatsu	Respond to of 186894

<Sony die sizes ... Those are truly amamzing die sizes IMHO. They don't have a prayer to do any real volumes. Perhaps when they migrate to 0.13 micron they have a shot.> I don't know if those die sizes refer to the 0.35 micron process or 0.25 micron. It's only ten percent more transistors than Pentium III, so that would suggest 0.35 micron, but given that the part has to run at 300 MHz, plus the possibility that the transistor density and layout skills of Toshiba aren't as good as those of Intel, and I would guess it's a 0.25 micron part. Migrating to 0.18 microns makes sense, but that probably won't take place until a year or two after the release of Playstation 2 in Japan. Until then, Sony will have to sell the console at $399 in order to break even. However, at this price, they'll risk losing the marketshare of all but the hardcore gamers because of fierce competition from Nintendo and Sega. Or Sony could sell at $299 and hope that royalties on software will make up for the loss, but that translates to $100 per console. Assuming a $10 royalty goes to Sony for every game sold, this means the average Playstation 2 buyer must buy at least ten games in order for Sony to make up for the loss. That's a hell of a business plan if you asked me. <Be interesting to hear from some of the fab guys on what the yield and apprx cost on those two chips would be.> I'm sure Microprocessor Report will have an article on the processors of game consoles, including their estimated costs of manufacturing. Tenchusatsu