In Summary

• Semiconductor costs are not tied into their raw materials, as the silicon itself remains an inexpensive form of highly purified, refined sand. The costs come from the sophisticated machines that can meet the level of precision required in the manufacturing process.

• The ultimate cost of the semiconductor itself is measured in two dimensions: complexity and size.

• Moore's First Law states that the numbers of transistors on a chip will double every 18-24 months, hence the amount of computing power available will also double in this timeframe. Time has proven Gordon Moore's initial prediction as a correct one.

• Surprisingly enough, Moore's second law is economic: that the cost of building plants to create continually more powerful processors requires that there is sufficient market potential to support the costs. An industry standard microprocessor available to all is one way to achieve this.

• EPIC, in the form of the Itanium processor family, suspends Moore's Second Law via a business partnership that allows for excellent economy of scale, and adds, as a bonus, performance gains from a new chip architecture.