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At the cost of increased die-size. If it helps any just think of the costs as buying diamonds. "Wow that's 16TB of diamonds!" or: "this GPU uses a bigger di
by mozumder 11y ago
At the cost of increased die-size.
If it helps any just think of the costs as buying diamonds.
"Wow that's 16TB of diamonds!"
or:
"this GPU uses a bigger diamond than that GPU"
- hbosch 11y agoIt doesn't exactly help your cause that many people also believe the cost of diamonds is artificially inflated as well.
- kedean 11y agoThe cost of diamonds IS artificially inflated. They are useful for purposes other than the one in which the price inflation is a big deal, but it is a demonstrable fact that the price is inflated.
- simoncion 11y agoThe cost of industrial diamonds is -one presumes- not subject to much artificial inflation.
- XorNot 11y agoOnly problem with that is that a silicon wafer is like $50 off the shelf individually. They are incredibly cheap.
- mozumder 11y agoThat's still a lot more expensive than aluminum platters. And you will need a lot of silicon to produce an SSD. You don't do it with just one chip.
- XorNot 11y agoThat price is for single wafers off the shelf. They get a lot cheaper if you buy bulk, and you can slice them a lot thinner then the sizes I used to use (where I know the price from).
- simoncion 11y ago> If it helps any just think of the costs as buying diamonds. This is an unhelpful analogy. Comparing the retail price of diamonds to the retail price of CPUs, RAM boards, and GPUs, I am lead to believe that whatever is used as the substrate for modern high-performance ICs is actually rather cheap. I can -after all- get a reasonably fast combination CPU and GPU for $45. If we ask the USGS, we discover that in 2003, the price of synthetic diamond suitable for reinforcing saws and drills sold for $1.50->$3.50 per carat. However, large synthetic diamonds with "excellent structure" suitable for -one presumes- processes that rely on the crystal's fine structural properties -just as CPU manufacture relies on silicon wafers with fine structural properties-, sold for "many hundreds of dollars per carat". [0] One carat is 200 milligrams. An entire Core i3 appears to weigh 26,800mg [1]. Let's be generous and assume that the CPU die is 1/1000th of that weight, or 268mg, or 1.32 carats. Given that CPU manufacture requires a substrate with excellent structure, just how much of a substance that costs many hundreds of dollars per carat can there be in a 1.32 carat device? (Especially when ones of similar weight constructed with similar materials can be had for $45 per, retail?) :) [0] http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/diamond/diamomyb03.pdf http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/diamond/dia... [1] http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i3/Intel-Core%20i3-2100%20CM8062301061600.html http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i3/Intel-Core%20i3-2100%2...
- Dylan16807 11y agoYes, a wafer is something like a hundred dollars, that's not the expensive part.
- simoncion 11y agoI know that the substrate isn't the expensive part. Even a cursory gut-check reveals a claim to the contrary to be bunk. I felt that a somewhat detailed analysis of the inappropriateness of the analogy was better than a "Nuh uh! You're wrong!" response.
- Dylan16807 11y agoWell the thing is you're analyzing in a way that's both in-depth and shallow at the same time. It doesn't matter that they have 'excellent structure' unless you care about actual wafer costs. Just use diamond prices and dimensions.