Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[sgolds]

jhalada, bobs10, CombJelly, y'all seem to agree that it would be easy to bring up 90nm on a production line designed for 65nm (Fab 36). In principle I agree with that, in practice there are certain practical considerations.

Even though you get the support for 90nm built in to the 65nm equipment there is still a design cycle to adapt the parts produced in Fab 30 to the new process in Fab 36, plus the testing and the ramp on the new line. In product development you can have huge testing and bringup costs even when there are very minor engineering changes.

I agree that 90nm in Fab 36 would be a smart backup plan. 65nm is an unknown right now. I just don't think that it is without significant startup costs, which y'all (perhaps unintentionally) implied.