Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[jhalada]

wbmw,

One interesting thing is that they recently released a 65nm NOR chip, which is well ahead of most competitors.

I have been followin the market (since I invested in Spansion) and as far as I know, Intel announced 65nm, not released.

Samsung has a half node design at 80nm or 75nm, but nothing yet at 65nm. Intel could gain back some NOR share next year with this, since their previous designs were 90nm. I think Spansion, for example, is still primarily at 110nm.

Spansion has made pretty hard switch to 90nm last Q and will be at 65nm in 2007. I will have to wait for the CC to get update on the production schedule. The last Spansion update was that they are evaluating 65nm silicon. But Spansion is already starting the ramp of QuadBit, and is ramping ORNAND, which is a play for a portion of the NAND market.

As for NAND, Intel's biggest revenue source comes from the Apple ramp, which hasn't been material through most of the year.

What Apple product is Intel NAND going into? I thought Samsung was (nearly) exclusive vendor for iPods.

BTW, iSupply is predict some turbulence in DRAM and NAND markets, but Buggi says iSupply is always wrong. If the PC market is growing strongly (due to Vista launch), it should absorb plenty of DRAM, and therefore, the suppliers who have flexibility so shift production between DRAM and NAND would not have incentive to switch from DRAM to NAND.

Joe