Re: Die Bank On die vs dice, I concur that the term die I used for both singular and plural forms. The term die bank pertains specifically to the semifinished goods inventory, which I believe was the origin of the terminology debate.
Much of the industry uses a push-pull planning approach. The lead time of the fab may be 12-16 weeks while assembly is 1-2 weeks. The fab, typically onshore, produces wafers (hopefully somewhat generic wafers) to a forecast (push) into die bank at the assembly plant, typically in Asia. Test / assembly pulls from die bank based on actual orders (pull), or at least in response to a near term demand forecast. You may even scrap entire lots if the sale price isn't worth the cost of assbly & test.
I don't know if anyone does build to order thru fab, although I have heard of alternative downstream processing. I've been out of the industry since the late 90's (worked at AMD for 5 years), but I don't think the planning has changed all that much.
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