Replies to post #8558 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[Not a Short]

The only way I can see to "cherry pick" during manufacturing based on your explination (which I find resonable) is if you assume the parts that bin lower won't sell at all. Then you get the highest bin parts getting shipped and the lowest binning parts getting destroyed (hopefully before they get to packaging or assembly or whatever you call it).

Now at the distributor/retail level you could test for speed assuming the manufacturer downbinned parts for marketing reasons. At that point someone could cherry pick. Of course that only matters to the retailer/end user.

I think his comments are based on concern about AMD's ability to manufacture sufficient parts to meet market demand above the threshold already set by thier previous products and previous products of their nearest competitor (INTC). Wether or not he understands manufacturing processes is immaterial to his concerns about AMD's ability to make a profit.

[blauboad]

Elmer--"So can you explain to me what you think "cherry-picking" is and how is a part treated that isn't cherry-picked?"

I didn't invent the term, and I only used it in anticipating what detractors might say--based on what they have said. I enjoyed your explanation, and I agree that it is not an especially good analogy to semiconductors. But the point is, I never used it as a technical term, anymore than "churning out Opterons" would mean that AMD is fabricating them from milkfat in wooden buckets.

[Haddock]

there is a strong possibility that AMD is taking some non standard steps to enhance binsplits at the expense of yield. When forming transistors there is a target size for the channel and controlling it defines, in part, the limits of a process generation. [...] But this is not on a die by die basis

Would it not be possible to do a short run of wafers with a smaller channel size? Yield would be poor, but the chips that worked might be expected to run faster. Let's say you wanted a handful of fast chips for demo purposes that would be one way to do that.

I don't think cherry-picking would be a good word for it, though.