3 ms·

But can older processes be made much cheaper than they where when they were launched? Is it an under investment in these processes because the price was too lo

• thereddaikon 5y ago
  Presumably if a machine can be made with X level of precision for Y cost then one with a lower level of precision could be made for a lower cost. Although it probably doesn't scale linearly. One relevant large advance I know of is in laser. What used to take very expensive chemical lasers in the 90's can now be done with inexpensive solid state lasers with much lower power draw, much higher output and greater reliability.
  • jopsen 5y ago
    Maybe, if someone is making the investment -- which the article suggest isn't happening. After all, if you build such a factory, you won't be able to target the lucrative high-end chips. And if competing factories were built when they were state-of-the-art, and the hardware paid for when they did high-end chips. The problem could be that low-end chips simply are cheaper than the amortized cost of building a factory.