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with 30%+ of the raw cost of chip manufacturing goes to energy usage alone Is the marginal cost of production at all relevant compared to the upfront capital o
by bradleyjg 2y ago
with 30%+ of the raw cost of chip manufacturing goes to energy usage alone
Is the marginal cost of production at all relevant compared to the upfront capital outlay?
- epoxia 2y agoYou can get a loan to spread out payments, reducing operating costs would be similar to reducing those payments. It also impacts viability and resale in second hand markets.
- bradleyjg 2y agoSure, but the question is the scale. Is debt service 10x operating costs? 2x? 50x? .5x? Those imply very different sorts of business.
- epoxia 2y agoThe graphic from the OIST in the link makes reference to both the reduced power needed and reduced capital costs, less mirrors & cheaper EUV light source. Also, less power -> less heat -> less cooling. I scoured for some other info as well: A single chip would go through a photo-lithography tool about 80 times. A photo-lithography tool can work on approx. 125 wafers per hour (5 FOUPS). A wafer contains ~230 chips. Current EUV light source requires a 20kw carbon laser. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX9CGRZwD-w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX9CGRZwD-w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ge2RcvDlgw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ge2RcvDlgw
- ksec 2y agoOne is OpeX and the other is CapeX. I would argue they are both important.
- bradleyjg 2y agoDon’t confuse the map for the territory. Dollars are fungible.
- jiggawatts 2y agoI tried to explain this to our finance team, but they just gawked at me with a stunned look of disbelief. To be fair, I did notice were busy colouring in money with different felt tip pens. “This is ‘blue’ money and it can’t be mixed with the ‘red’ or ‘green’ money. That would be silly!”