HP & Compaq

From: Absurdly Obtuse <vance_at_ikickass.org>
Date: Tue Sep 4 23:23:04 2001

On Tue, 4 Sep 2001, Carlos Murillo wrote:

> >IBM is doing the multi-layer ceramic interconnect packaging for the
> >Itanium.
> IBM was a latecomer in the alliance. At the time this was agreed,
> DEC's Alpha outclocked all other mass-production cpus, but Intel
> was outspending everyone in production technology research.
> IA64 is the result of a chain of decisions that started a long
> time ago.

Technically, IBM isn't even a member of the alliance. IBM is simply the
best place to outsource large-scale production of ceramic interconnects.
We have no say in the design of the interconnect, but only in the
production of the interconnect. Production decisions can make big
differences in performance though, and I might be biased, but I would have
to say that the MLC Interconnect production at IBM is superior to that of
Kyocera or NKK (the two other main players in the industry -- IBM's
production is of significantly larger scale... something like 80,000 part
starts/day).

Peace... Sridhar

Sridhar Ayengar
Interconnect Products
IBM Corp.
Received on Tue Sep 04 2001 - 23:23:04 BST