Intel Corp (INTC)

[SemiconEng]

Semi, I don't agree with your analysis of Intel's new Celeronized Celeron. They had to have planned this product long before realizing a couple weeks ago that they had overcapacity.


*** Why? First off, I don't think that intel realized just "a couple of weeks ago that they had overcapacity". Orders for semiconductors are taken for a specific delivery date months down the road. Intel should have discovered the improved yields at MT1 etest. It is not difficult to extrapolate End Of Line yields, from the Metal1 etest data, which is done approximately mid-line, so intel would have known quite awhile ago that orders vs. yields were not going to match up.

Also, Since intel has it's own Internal Mask Operations, and the design was already on the IMO CAD Stations, it wouldn't be too difficult to shrink the design and slice off the cache. You would be surprised at how quickly a straight shrink, without any optimizations, can be done. Also, you do not need to have EVERY Layer Mask available at the onset. Metal Masks for example wouldn't be needed for ~ an additional 6 weeks.


I think Shelton, or whatever it's called, is simply a way to penetrate the most price conscious underdeveloped markets. It ought to be very easy to sell up most buyers to a regular Celeron when this chip has no cache and clocks at 1GHz.


*** Right, but if that's true, then where did they get the design from? At the low selling prices necessary to move these chips, you would most likely NOT recoup the development costs necessary to develop, layout, and produce a new design. It's much smarter to reuse an old design, and shrink it. Of course, intel doesn't seem to have been doing the smart thing the past couple of years, so maybe you're right. Actually, I'm not saying I'm right either, I don't know if intel did what I said, it's just what I would have done.