Quote Originally Posted by Hornet331 View Post
afaik no yield rate ever was publicated by any big semi conductor company (at least not when the product was still selling).

So forgive me my skeptic. There where a lot of BS rumors about intel, how utter horrible there 45nm yield were, same goes for 65nm when they where first, same for amd etc.
http://download.intel.com/technology...Technology.pdf
Some nitpicks :

Well , Intel recently posted info about its 45nm process.Systematic cross wafer ring oscillator frequency variation slightly lower in 45 nm while random cross wafer variation reduced by about 50%. Mean cross die Vt variation reduced from 20 mV for 65 nm to 11 mV for 45 nm for NFETs and from 9 mV to 7 mV for PFETs.
Put it simply : the process rocks compared to their own 65nm.High-k and metal aren't the only "goodies" put in the mix.
The "horrible yield" card is played far to offen in the recent days, but we'll see when NV brings it 55nm shrink of the G200.
IBM had less than 20% yeilds on Cell , 200mm^2 logic only.G200 is 450mm^2 and logic only.I'd be surprised if TSMC yields on it are better than 20%.

Fortunately , I think they can save most parts and sell then as inferior chips , with disabled paths.