why are chips often so expensive? how do chip companies determine the prices of their chips? a thread... 🧵

first thing chip companies do is to figure out the COGS - cost of goods sold. this is how much it costs them to produce a chip--not counting profit or anything else.

but before we can calculate that, we need to know The Life of a Chip, start to finish!

it starts as a raw slice of silicon, something like this. (0th step is a raw boule or silicon ingot, grown as a single crystal, that is sawn up like this)

then it gets run through a variety of processing steps. etching, diffusion, implantation, deposition, and others.

let's order strange things from NIST! first up is this jar of reference peanut butter. it's only $881 per jar!

but it's no ordinary peanut butter. it's got a MSDS! and a datasheet!

ok technically it is only $881 per *three* jars.

but why would you want this peanut butter? it comes with certified amounts of particular substances in it, so it's good for calibrating equipment used in the food industry to measure regular ol' grocery store peanut butter.

but NIST has a lot more than just peanut butter. oh my. you won't believe the goodies i've seen!