How long does Intel produce prior-gen parts in their fabs?

[VirtualLarry]

Once Haswell hits, will they only be producing Haswell? Or will they still be producing Ivy Bridge? What about Sandy Bridge? (I'm pretty sure that they are no longer producing S775 CPUs commercially, don't know about Nehalem 32nm hex-cores.)

 

[scannall]

They stop producing the previous generation right away. It is likely that they aren't making any new IB chips now. What's in the pipeline is all you get

 

[Phynaz]

They stop producing the previous generation right away. It is likely that they aren't making any new IB chips now. What's in the pipeline is all you get

This is not true at all.

Let's use my CPU as an example. The i7-870 was launched on Sept. 8th, 2009. Last date of order was June 29, 2012 and last shipment date for tray processors was December 7, 2012.

Intel is still shipping 2600k today.

Xeons will be on the market a lot longer than desktop CPU's.

 

[Maximilian]

They stop producing the previous generation right away. It is likely that they aren't making any new IB chips now. What's in the pipeline is all you get

BS, they ceased making 486's in 2007.

 

[Bateluer]

BS, they ceased making 486's in 2007.

This. Some chips they manufacture for decades. They only stopped making the 4004 a few years ago too.

 

[bryanl]

They have a local facility just for manufacturing short runs of obsolete parts needed by industry, military, and aerospace when development of a FPGA equivalent is uneconomical.

 

[Piroko]

Don't you have to make a difference between chips from the same process and chips from an older process?

Imho it would make sense to completely stop production of IB right away to get the capacity for Haswell. But SB for example isn't in direct competition for production capacity, so why phase it out right away?

 

[Insert_Nickname]

They only stopped making the 4004 a few years ago too.

Hopefully on an older process node. The 4004 would be microscopic today...

 

[NTMBK]

Hopefully on an older process node. The 4004 would be microscopic today...

On a 22nm process, they could probably just make a single wafer of them a year to satisfy demand

 

[sm625]

They cannot even so much as die-shrink these old designs because it could change the EM and especially the RF characteristics of whatever board they are mounted on. Any such change would have to be qualified in what can be a very expensive process. The part they build now has to be the same as the one from 5, 10, or 20 years ago, or it has to be given a new number.

 

[Idontcare]

They cannot even so much as die-shrink these old designs because it could change the EM and especially the RF characteristics of whatever board they are mounted on. Any such change would have to be qualified in what can be a very expensive process. The part they build now has to be the same as the one from 5, 10, or 20 years ago, or it has to be given a new number.

Long before they even get to capturing that cost they must justify how they are going to amortize the cost of the mask-set and layout engineering work that would go into shrinking the chip in the first place.

 

[A5]

Long before they even get to capturing that cost they must justify how they are going to amortize the cost of the mask-set and layout engineering work that would go into shrinking the chip in the first place.

To be fair, the layout of a 4004 could probably be done by a capable intern pretty quickly using modern tools

But yeah, justifying all those other costs for a tiny production run isn't going to happen.

 

[Railgun]

To be fair, the layout of a 4004 could probably be done by a capable intern pretty quickly using modern tools

...and parts from Radio Shack. :whiste:

 

[Insomniator]

They stop producing the previous generation right away. It is likely that they aren't making any new IB chips now. What's in the pipeline is all you get

lol why even post this? were you just completely BS guessing or did you misunderstand the question?

 

[Sable]

I'm sure I read 2500k is end of life this year.

edit:
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i5/Intel-Core i5-2500K CM8062300833803.html

Introduction date Jan 9, 2011

End-of-Life date Last order date is March 29, 2013
Last shipment date for tray processors is September 27, 2013

 

[ShintaiDK]

8 series chipset are made on the 32nm process for example. Moved from 65nm on the 7 series.

 

[NTMBK]

I'm sure I read 2500k is end of life this year.

edit:
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i5/Intel-Core i5-2500K CM8062300833803.html

Introduction date Jan 9, 2011

End-of-Life date Last order date is March 29, 2013
Last shipment date for tray processors is September 27, 2013

Not surprised that the K series would bite the dust soonest, actually. They only exist for us overclockers, and overclockers don't really care about 32nm parts any more!

I wonder how long the rest of the SB range will last?

 

[hans007]

im pretty sure once intel stops producing 32nm dies they will probably still have tons of sandy bridge dies in a warehouse somewhere and can blow the fuses or whatever it is they do to make them whatever sandy bridge core they want if someoen wants them

its an older process design but they do not convert all their factories over to 22nm overnight and the tooling and such they will use for a while to make chipsets and such. the current ivy bridge lines maybe they move to haswell more quickly since thats just 22nm capacity that they wont be able to use if they keep building ivy bridge on it and its their latest process

i mean they are still shipping 32nm cpus, like the celeron 847 and such on all those itx boards.

 

[Charles Kozierok]

As Shintai said, they commonly use prior-generation processes for chipsets.

To be fair, the layout of a 4004 could probably be done by a capable intern pretty quickly using modern tools

Even the 4004 was over 2,000 transistors, which would be a pretty significant breadboard job.

 

[A5]

Even the 4004 was over 2,000 transistors, which would be a pretty significant breadboard job.

Sounds like the perfect job for an intern then!

 

[nenforcer]

New chips built on a new manufacturing process require an entirely new fab. The oldest fabs get stuck manufacturing the chipsets and obviously ever decreasing quantities of old chips.

I think the oldest designs, the decades old ones, are possibly contract manufactured at some archaic fabs around the world, possibly.

 

[jhu]

As Shintai said, they commonly use prior-generation processes for chipsets.



Even the 4004 was over 2,000 transistors, which would be a pretty significant breadboard job.

Done

 

[piasabird]

I think the answer is both yes and no. They are still making 61 series motherboards or were a short time ago. Of course they make a lot of Celeron, Pentium and low-end dual core processors. There is even a possibilities they sell some of these old processors in third world countries.

 

[piasabird]

I wonder what they did with all those flawed Haswell Processors?

 

[ShintaiDK]

I wonder what they did with all those flawed Haswell Processors?

I wonder how you made that up?