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Intel Shipped 1 Billionth Computer Chip

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the thats-a-lotta-silicon dept.

murat submitted linkage to a simple little story that proclaims that Intel has recently shipped it's One Billionth Chip. Quite an impressive accomplishment... it took them 25 years to reach the billions, but they estimate that they will hit 2 billion by only 2007.

3 of 350 comments (clear)

  1. 10^9th CPU by cperciva · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It sounds like this is actually the billionth *CPU* from Intel, not the billionth chip. Intel produces quite a lot of other silicon in addition to the CPUs it is best known for, and I suspect that Intel actually passed the billion *chip* mark many years ago.

    --
    Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
  2. More than one per second by suso · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's more than 1 per second since 1 billion seconds is almost 32 years.

  3. Intel Processor Production follows the equation by DotComVictim · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Thus,

    13139006 * e^(.17329 * x)

    Where x is in years is the cumulative output of Intel.

    This allows us to calculate with high accuracy the size of Intel's production line, a secret coveted by industry insiders. Differentiating, we have:

    2276816 * e^(.17329 * x)

    Thus, Intel currently has 173 million processors in various production stages.
    This allows us to calculate another secret, coveted by all geeks - the true value of an Intel CPU.

    Intel's current market capitalization is 141.6 billion US$. Based on their Q1 2003 quarterly report, 53.6% of their cost of production (including R&D and other expenses) goes into the Intel Architecture business unit.

    If we know the size of the production line, the current valuation, and the percentage dedicated to CPU production, we can compute an average valuation for an Intel CPU.

    Each current issue Intel CPU should be worth, on average .536*141.6e9/173e6 dollars. That works out to $438.67 Current list prices for the Intel Pentium III, 3.06 GHz, range from $365-$759.99, with an average price listing of $459.53.

    Conclusion - for every current release Intel CPU you buy, on average you are being ripped off by about $20.86, about 4.75% the value of the product. That is less than sales tax, and doesn't seem like the work of a greed hungry power monster.

    Any similar statistics on Microsoft's product valuation would be highly interesting.