Gabriele Svelto (gabriele.svelto.delete@this.gmail.com) on February 7, 2013 4:18 am wrote:
> geeker (geeker.delete@this.mailinator.com) on February 6, 2013 12:16 pm wrote:
> > Another question, does Intel and TSMC (or GF for that matter)
> > depreciate their foundry equipment at the same
> > rate?
>
> TSMC seems to make a large chunk of their profits out of older processes
> (up to 150nm apparently, see the per-process break down in the article):
>
> http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20130121093033_TSMC_s_Sales_of_28nm_Chips_in_Fourth_Quarter_Totaled_Nearly_1_Billion.html
>
> This means that they have a far longer time frame than Intel to recover
> their initial investment on a specific process generation.

that's the secret of every foundries to make money.
Keep good old & depreciated fabs processing wafers.
WPC is probably very low. No investements needed .
Limited engineering skills required.
Just buy spare parts for tools & consummables & here we go!
Money stream coming in the pocket forever!
For how long 150nm+ is not leading edge anymore & still 25% of the revenue!