Why should it be that expensive? The cost of a processor depends on the yield and the yield on the number of transistors. This processor does only have 52 millions of transistors which is 3 millions less than the P4. This means that the cost shouldnt be much higher than the P4. This is also the reason that the Power4 its so expensive. It has around 180 millions of transistors.
I don’t think IBM’s PPC 970 product line is isolated from economic of scale factors...
