"I have heard the engineers here say it takes 9-12 months from tapeout to shipping samples. "
It depends on how many "gotchas" and where they are. Pre-tape out validation and verification is a lot better than it used to be, so parts are often functional at first silicon. In addition, there are tools that can make fixes to the metal layers, so changes can be made to chips that are partially fabricated. And we know that sampling can occur in a lot less time, AMD's dual core taped out in July, IIRC. However, the chip still goes through at least 2 or 3 spins of the silicon before they actually ship. At least one of those spins is going to be to tighten some of the rules and make the die smaller. So it is usually about 12 months from tape out to volume production. When it takes longer, like with Opteron, it usually means problems.
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