Quote from: kikaha on September 13, 2014, 12:13:49 AM

I do not know what HF did or didn't do or what they had planned to do.

I can say that test chips are typically used to prove out sections of a new chip/new technology. It is a small fraction ($100K range vs $Ms) of what a full tape-out costs and is used typically to mitigate risk. It isn't typically viewed as an overrun, but more as money spent to reduce risk.

Quote from: stan258 on September 13, 2014, 12:06:34 AM

The cost overruns in 16 NM come from the test wafers?

From a business or bank side when a developer asks for x dollars and you pass it then ask for more cash was my thought process.

I was reading Bitfury scraped 16 NM because they ran into problems.

Its about 80% more to develop 16NM compared to 28 but doesn't include what a developer can import from a previous chip?? It depends on how far along HF got.