They are talking about some 2 years to put the design on actual silicon, and promise to deliver a full workstation (including the e2k, a chipset, and a proprietary OS) in about 3 years, if they will receive the funding that they are asking for. Now this is only half the problem, since having such a chip is really nice, but you've got to manufacture it somewhere, if you want to sell computers based on that chip, and not just frame it and hang it on the wall. To build a facility that could produce 0.18 chips from the ground up costs, as you said, something like $2 billion US dollars, so obviously it's not an option. Although Luzhkov - or Moscow, which is the same thing - does have that kind of money, and even more, it's very unrealistic that he will actually pay for a chip factory... Presidential campaigns have a very high price tag now days. So Elbrus has 3 possible ways of putting e2k to mass market (IF they will eventually get the $40 millions from Luzhkov). First is to sell the license, so a foreign company will manufacture the processor. Since they didn't do it yet, they probably won't want to do it in 2 years, when they'll have a prototype. Second is to convert some old-tech soviet-style chip factory. This is still very costly, and also not likely. Third and last, is to make an embedded chip out of it, and that's what they're thinking of doing right now. This might be the best solution, because it costs less, and there's a growing market for powerful embedded chips, in internet appliances, smart weapons, and the like. The embedded market will probably expand greatly in the future, and Elbrus will arrive just in time for it.
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They are talking about some 2 years to put the design on actual silicon,
and promise to deliver a full workstation (including the e2k, a chipset, and
a proprietary OS) in about 3 years, if they will receive the funding that
they are asking for. Now this is only half the problem, since having such a
chip is really nice, but you've got to manufacture it somewhere, if you want
to sell computers based on that chip, and not just frame it and hang it on the
wall. To build a facility that could produce 0.18 chips from the ground up
costs, as you said, something like $2 billion US dollars, so obviously it's not an option.
Although Luzhkov - or Moscow, which is the same thing - does have that kind
of money, and even more, it's very unrealistic that he will actually pay for a chip factory...
Presidential campaigns have a very high price tag now days.
So Elbrus has 3 possible ways of putting e2k to mass market (IF they will eventually
get the $40 millions from Luzhkov).
First is to sell the license, so a foreign company will manufacture the processor.
Since they didn't do it yet, they probably won't want to do it in 2 years, when they'll
have a prototype.
Second is to convert some old-tech soviet-style chip factory. This is still very costly,
and also not likely.
Third and last, is to make an embedded chip out of it, and that's what they're thinking
of doing right now. This might be the best solution, because it costs less, and there's
a growing market for powerful embedded chips, in internet appliances, smart weapons,
and the like. The embedded market will probably expand greatly in the future, and Elbrus
will arrive just in time for it.
No, they didn't.
The article is real, although it's probably
a joke.
:-)