you...
No way. AMD was forced to build a new fab or be left in the dust forever. 65nm technology is needed now and into the future. In the same light, AMD had better be coming up with the bucks for 45nm soon...
me...
Well that's part of it, but AMD wouldn't have needed Charter or the increases in fab30 and fab36 sizes announced recently if all AMD wanted to do was maintain fab30 capacity. In fact a much smaller fab36 would have provided the same number of units considering there's almost a 4-fold increase in die of similar size in going from 90nm/200mm to 65nm/300mm. You really don't think AMD would have added all that extra capacity without some very concrete plans for the product they will produce do you? Certainly, as conservative/risk averse as Hector is it's hard to imagine such a thing.
you...
Here's another one of your diffused comments. Intel was on a different path (which was a good one, btw) which would have proved competitive had it not been for the Pd. It takes years to switch and you are now seeing that light coming on as well.
me...
Well, I'm sure it looks that way to you, but I wonder how well the P4/Pd would have done if AMD hadn't be severely capacity constrained during most of that period. It's becoming increasing clear that the only thing that kept AMD from huge market gains during the period was a lack of capacity. This was especially true after INTC marketing was forced to rein in its' most nefarious practices.
