- Oct 14, 2003
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I've seen various people saying that the space occupied by the GPU core in Sandy Bridge would be better served by having more cores, and those using the discrete GPU is forced to pay more for it.
Here's my take(of course its simplified):
Intel was ramping up 4 32nm Fabrication facilities back in 2010. They were supposed to go full force in 2011, right on time for Sandy Bridge chips. Each fab is capable of churning out 45,000 300mm wafers per month.
The total x86 PC Desktop and Laptop market in 2010 was said to be ~330 million from IDC's data. At some point in 2010, it would cross a point where 1 million chips would be sold per day, presumerably on the later half. The PC market is estimated for another 15% growth to ~380 million units in 2011. And Intel takes approximately 80% of that market.
Now,
300mm wafer has a 300 x 300 or 90,000 mm2 of space. Of course you can't use all of that because the wafer is round. Sandy Bridge chip is 216mm2. 90,000/216 = 417, but say its actually 200 chips usable.
200 chips/wafer x 45,000 wafer/fab x 4 fabs x 12 month/year = 432 million chips
If Intel takes 100% of the x86 PC market, and if PC growth is another 12% in 2012, they'll still have no problem supplying the market, assuming they can only print out 200 chips/wafer.
They can easily make up the costs associated with the graphics by increased volume, and better fab utilization. Really, its the volume market that will actually use the graphics that pays for R&D and extra costs that's incurred on the die.
Costs to user = $0
Here's my take(of course its simplified):
Intel was ramping up 4 32nm Fabrication facilities back in 2010. They were supposed to go full force in 2011, right on time for Sandy Bridge chips. Each fab is capable of churning out 45,000 300mm wafers per month.
The total x86 PC Desktop and Laptop market in 2010 was said to be ~330 million from IDC's data. At some point in 2010, it would cross a point where 1 million chips would be sold per day, presumerably on the later half. The PC market is estimated for another 15% growth to ~380 million units in 2011. And Intel takes approximately 80% of that market.
Now,
300mm wafer has a 300 x 300 or 90,000 mm2 of space. Of course you can't use all of that because the wafer is round. Sandy Bridge chip is 216mm2. 90,000/216 = 417, but say its actually 200 chips usable.
200 chips/wafer x 45,000 wafer/fab x 4 fabs x 12 month/year = 432 million chips
If Intel takes 100% of the x86 PC market, and if PC growth is another 12% in 2012, they'll still have no problem supplying the market, assuming they can only print out 200 chips/wafer.
They can easily make up the costs associated with the graphics by increased volume, and better fab utilization. Really, its the volume market that will actually use the graphics that pays for R&D and extra costs that's incurred on the die.
Costs to user = $0
Last edited:
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