| ethomaz said: @disolitude Sorry I was a little drunk yesterday but what I said is true... but just to exlain better: - Sony manufacture the RSX in 2006 in two forms... in house and at TSMC (a little more expensive)... in both case Sony used 200mm wafers, 90nm; Process CMOS4 and in future migred to 300mm wafers, 65nm; Process CMOS 5... the 300mm wafers was used just for 65nm, in 90nm the wafer used was the 200mm... the 200mm wafer has a area of 48.7 square inches and the 300mm wafer has a area of 109.6 square inches... the 300mm is 125% bigger than the 200mm... in theory 125% more chips come be manufatured in 300mm wafer. - The RSX was a new chip never manufactured before so the % of goods choips is lower than a chip already manufactured a years like the 7970m... the only thing can change that is the fact the 7970m used in PS4 be heavly customized. - The 300mm 28nm wafer is sold by TSMC from $4000 to $5000... the cost of the wafer is defined by the tech used so SOI, High-K, etc... so there is 300mm wafer at $2000 for memory por example but the tech used by TSCM for GPU costs $4000 to $5000 (http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20110912192619_TSMC_Reportedly_Hikes_Pricing_on_28nm_Wafers_Due_to_Increased_Demand.html). It's harder to know how much costed the 300mm wafer in 2006 but I know the 300mm 65nm wafer used in GT200 custed ~$8000. So if use the maths with a 200mm 90nm wafer you can reach near that $129 of the RSX in 2006... so my maths was not wrong just the chips today is way more chepear than in 2006... just the migration to 300mm 65nm wafer made Sony cute the price of the RSX from $129 to $58 (http://www.gizmag.com/sony-losing-money-playstation-3/10617/)... small chip (65nm), more space to manufacture (300mm), better process... voila the cost was sliced by more than a half. Just another example to you... AMD Windsor (X2+): That's the number of usable chips in a 90nm, 200mm Wafer (the same than RSX) for the AMD Windsor... the size of the chips are close (200 to 219mm^2)... a CPU is more easy to manufature than a GPU and the process have just a 70% of the good chips. Now we need to get what the cost of a 90nm, 200mm Wafer for GPU from TSMC in 2006 and you have your number... add $5-10 for NVIDIA royalties and $10-20 for the TSMC if the chip was manufactured by TSMC (Sony used both... in house no third costs... and TSMC $10-20 costs). I'm trying to find the price of a 90nm, 200mm Wafer for GPUs in 2006. Anyway for the PS3 costs the Cell + RSX accounted per less than 25% of the total cost ($800)... the problem was the others components mainly the BD drive (over $200 I guess). The price you talked here in this thread for CPU, GPU is surreal |
... I can't see a new custom chip today costing more than $70 (with royalties and TSMC added) with the 28nm, 300mm wafer... it's just impossible in today market.
I will admit that you've illustrated your points very well and have some sources to back them up...
Moving forward I will adopt the wait and see approach moving forward. If PS4 comes out with a powerful 7900m like GPU and iSupply or whoever provides the cost estimate for Sony, we will have an idea what the licensing and manufacturing cost for these GPU's are.
