Yipyip, in other words, according to kncminer, by "tape-out" they mean to say that the chip is beyond theoretical design, and is now actually in the fabrication (or build it stage as you put it) plant where they make ASIC chips?
Anyone know how long it takes to fab 50 wafers?
Anyone know how long it takes to fab 50 wafers?
Wafers are manufactured in lots (e.g. 25 wafer each). A Foundry normally gives you a committed cycle time for the concrete 28nm fab for a wafer lot. That time strongly depends on what priority your run got and which tech options you choose (e.g. how many metal layers). If they were lucky and got a so called "rocket" run it could be as fast as 30 to 45 days. Standard runs take between 60 to 90 days.
After that the wafers must be bumped (prepared for flip-chip packaging, probably at another facility), diced in dies and packaged in the flip-chip package. Don't know how long this takes exactly, but it could be easily "2 more weeks".
