2nd Quarter Conference Hilights

[ajb13]

Microchip Production 101 for Klaus

Correct? Cause I don't follow the manufacturing of processors very closely to know all this **** 🙂

Correct. Not every wafer yields the same number of chips. Of course they tweak and tweak and tweak until they get everything setup so they get optimum usable chips. Then, they get new raw material, so they tweak and tweak, and so the process continues.

Even if they do produce good chips, that is, the circuits are whole; nothing broken, these chips still have to be tested. There are normally failures here too. So, hypothetically speaking, after all the tweaking, they get say 85% yield, and then anywhere from 5-10% failures. That's why IBM uses such a large wafer. Makes it more cost effective. It makes processors too damn expensive when you are producing smaller yields on smaller wafers (150-200mm)

 

[macridah]

I'm glad that apple is profitable. It's just going to get better when more and new G5 come out. In due time ...

 

[fpnc]

It takes AMD 100 days to go from wafer to packaged processor. AMD aren't that small a fab! In fact it is rumoured that the IBM fab shares a lot in common with the AMD fab for 90nm.

Making a processor isn't a case of popping the wafer in and a few dozen processors coming out the other side a few minutes later!

I used to work as an engineer in the semiconductor industry and to be completely accurate it should be noted that it takes no where near 100 days to produce an IC. The wafer/IC fab time is a few weeks. However, getting an order placed, scheduling material and equipment, packaging, testing, and shipping and receiving can add significantly to the overall time.

 

[x86isslow]

the french site http://croquer.free.fr/ comes up with the rumor the delays happened because of problems concerning the glue, used to connect two parts of somthing they call "daughter cards".
So far what I understand of it.
Any French speaking People around? 😉

* Plus grave. Apple a été obligé de démonter toutes les cartes filles des G5 et de les renvoyer en usine.

IBM a découvert très tardivement un problème sur les PPC 970FX. Dans le processus de fabrication, une colle est utilisée pour assembler deux couches. C'est une nouveauté du process SSDOI. La colle utilisée depuis le début de la fabrication des processeurs se détériore rapidement à la chaleur provoquant la casse du CPU. Depuis ils ont modifié la formule et relancé la fabrication des processeurs. Mais Apple devra tous les changer sur ses cartes filles.

Sherlock seems to do a good job with the translation:
More serious. APPLE was obliged to dismount all the cards girls of G5
and to return them in factory.

IBM discovered very tardily a problem on PPC 970FX. In the
manufacturing process, an adhesive is used to assemble two layers. It
is an innovation of process SSDOI. The adhesive used since the
beginning of the manufacture of the processors worsens quickly with
heat causing the break-in of the CPU. Since they modified the formula
and started again the manufacture of the processors. But APPLE will
have all to change them on its cards girls.

I get the feeling though, that the last line got screwed up- cards girls?

 

[fpnc]

This probably means NO 3GHz Power Mac this summer

I'd say that if IBM can't produce enough 970FX G5s at 2GHz to supply even the Xserves then any hope of a 3GHz Power Mac by this July is completely gone. I think it even places into doubt a 3GHz G5 by the end of this summer. IMO, this looks like the first confirmation that there has been a real slip in the G5 schedule.

 

[jade]

Sherlock seems to do a good job with the translation:

Retouched by humans

More serious. APPLE was obliged to dismount all the daughter cards of G5 and to return them in factory.

Late in the process, IBM discovered a problem on PPC 970FX. In the
manufacturing process, an adhesive is used to assemble two layers. It
is an innovation of process SSDOI. The adhesive used since the
beginning of manufacturing worsens quickly with
heat causing the break-in of the CPU. Currently IBM modifieied the formula and resumed manufacturing. Apple will have to modify the daughter cards to to this change.

cards girls = daughter cards. Makes more sense?

 

[centauratlas]

...IBM's PowerPC 970 90nm was the sole constrained supply causing the Xserve G5 delays. This supply is expected to ramp up over this quarter.
....

I said that in mid-Feb (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/61633/) and several people poo-poo'd that. 🙂 I think some others did too, but I will be happy when IBM is not constrained by supply and (if the rumors this week are true) are producing > 2.0GHZ. ;-)

I want a new PM G5 and a new PB G5...I can wait, but I don't *want* to!

 

[PowerMacMan]

hearing all this stuff about the processors having problems... makes me depressed... Then I hear that they have been fixed and are resuming production and manufacturing... I'm happy again!

I guess this stuff is making me bi-polar 😱

 

[ClimbingTheLog]

And if half the album sucks, then you buy the songs you want and this whole issue (album prices) doesn't apply.

Yeah, I wish. I tried to buy "Buck, Buck" from Bill Cosby's "Revenge" the other night. No "Buck, Buck". Revenge is listed as a "Partial Album" which means it has every sketch but "Buck, Buck". But the one almost everybody wants to hear is "Buck, Buck". So it's the RIAA's way of saying, F U, go buy the CD.

(for those who don't know, "Buck, Buck" is the skit where Fat Albert is introduced, and you're likely to pee yourself if you're hearing it for the first time).

 

[asif3]

It's great to hear Apple officially announce the London Store. Now I can sleep at night 🙂

 

[displaced]

It takes AMD 100 days to go from wafer to packaged processor. AMD aren't that small a fab! In fact it is rumoured that the IBM fab shares a lot in common with the AMD fab for 90nm.

Making a processor isn't a case of popping the wafer in and a few dozen processors coming out the other side a few minutes later!

IIRC, both AMD and IBM develop 90nm (and future) processes at the very same fab -- the East Fishkill plant -- see here

Also in that press release (dated Jan 2003), note that they planned 90nm production at Q4 2003. We're only in early Q2 2004, and 90nm xserves are in production. Kinda puts these 'delays' in perspective.

I think we all need to appreciate how close to the edge we are with these processors. These machines are most likely the first production computers using these technologies (or at least, IBM's version of them).

With any new process, the yield on a wafer is low. Over time, as tweaks to the manufactuing procedure are made, yeilds increase. These delays are because Apple are right in there at the start, designing machines that use emerging technologies.

Give 'em a break. IBM are not a Motorola. Motorola's delays weren't due to the fact that they were pushing the boundaries of microprocessor technology, it was because their CPU division was not the core ('scuse the pun) focus of the company. CPU design and production is bread and butter to IBM, and I'm sure there's no foot-dragging.

Am I the only one that's still amazed that mankind can even make these things in the first place? It's not like they build 'em out of lego...

 

[iChan]

It's great to hear Apple officially announce the London Store. Now I can sleep at night 🙂

you gonna be there for the opening? i am...

 

[wdlove]

hearing all this stuff about the processors having problems... makes me depressed... Then I hear that they have been fixed and are resuming production and manufacturing... I'm happy again!

I guess this stuff is making me bi-polar 😱

I'm just not going to let this depress me just yet. Isn't it entirely possible that these reports are rumors also. They may be trying to keep us all track. The only sure news is when it comes from Apple. 🙂

 

[asif3]

you gonna be there for the opening? i am...

Yep - definitely -I live in Holland Park which is like 4 stops away from Oxford Street 😎 - I reckon i'll queue up from about midnight on the night before the opening 🙂

 

[displaced]

Yep - definitely -I live in Holland Park which is like 4 stops away from Oxford Street 😎 - I reckon i'll queue up from about midnight on the night before the opening 🙂

Me too 🙂

Book a day off work, get the train into London... just got to wait for a date to be announced!

Shame I probably won't be able to afford much if anything... ho hum 🙂

 

[mattmack]

I'm glad that apple is profitable. It's just going to get better when more and new G5 come out. In due time ...

Their stock was up 10% today to $29 and some change. Reporting a 300%increase over earning the same period last year. Wish I had bought at 12
🙁

 

[iMeowbot]

IIRC, both AMD and IBM develop 90nm (and future) processes at the very same fab -- the East Fishkill plant -- see here

You do RC, and the 90/60/etc. fab AMD are building in Dresden will be using the same IBM processes.

 

[godrifle]

Xserve

I'm curious how Xserve and peripherals are selling...

 

[thatwendigo]

Their stock was up 10% today to $29 and some change. Reporting a 300%increase over earning the same period last year. Wish I had bought at 12
🙁

No, no, no... You don't get it. Apple can't have healthy stock prices, because they're dying. Dying, I tell you!

Marketshare is the be-all, end-all of the entire game, and so obviously this is a plot to increase hope so that we can all be crushed. Don't give into it! Resist with every fiber of your being!

Or, you know... Smile, wish you had invested, and thank Steve Jobs for turning the company around and bringing us here. However difficult it might be, at least there is an Apple, which there probably wouldn't have been without Ives and Jobs at the creative and business helms.

I've been using macs a long time, and I can't recall a better value for the money. Ever. Even with the G5 line aging (oh, horror, a year!), I'd take a mac over any PC you offered me. Hell, I'll take my eMac 700 over a top of the line P4 EE... Zealot? Maybe. Comfortable? Definitely.

I know what I like, and Windows just isn't it.

 

[jeffgarden]

April 14 - 23:20 EDT For the first time, Apple sold more iPods in a quarter than it did Macs--and Apple CEO Steve Jobs is happy about it. "We feel great," Jobs told the New York Times. "We sold a lot of Macs, but we've sold more iPods in the quarter than all the Macs put together." As reported by MacMinute Wednesday, Apple sold a record 807,000 iPods in the quarter, a more than 900 percent increase from the period a year earlier. The company sold 749,000 Macs in the quarter, up 5 percent. Apple's revenue from iPod sales was US$264 million, up from $31 million a year ago. Jobs also noted that the iPod now has a 40 percent share of the MP3 player market and that Apple has sold 2.9 million iPods in two years.

 

[mattmack]

No, no, no... You don't get it. Apple can't have healthy stock prices, because they're dying. Dying, I tell you!

Marketshare is the be-all, end-all of the entire game, and so obviously this is a plot to increase hope so that we can all be crushed. Don't give into it! Resist with every fiber of your being!

Or, you know... Smile, wish you had invested, and thank Steve Jobs for turning the company around and bringing us here. However difficult it might be, at least there is an Apple, which there probably wouldn't have been without Ives and Jobs at the creative and business helms.

I've been using macs a long time, and I can't recall a better value for the money. Ever. Even with the G5 line aging (oh, horror, a year!), I'd take a mac over any PC you offered me. Hell, I'll take my eMac 700 over a top of the line P4 EE... Zealot? Maybe. Comfortable? Definitely.

I know what I like, and Windows just isn't it.

LOL thanks for putting a smile on my face