To all: Thanks for the reponses on the off-spec chips and the chips per 8" wafer. Needless to say, I'm in no danger of becoming V.P. of operations for a semicon company <g>
I guess all DRAMs aren't necessarily "equal", which for me came as a bit of a surprise. Maybe MU's better at finding alternate buyers for some of the off-specs, helped by the fact that, as some of you have suggested, it has a somewhat capitive buyer in MUEI.
On the chips per wafer question, I'm still trying to understand how durable MU's competitive advantage (if you believe they have one) in terms of production efficiencies actually is. I just have a hard time believing that the competition is going to just stand around and get its butt whipped, especially now.
Hypothetically, if I'm running a DRAM competitor, I bring in my operations people and start asking questions - Why's the competition operating at level X and we're here at level Y? If we need to get to level X to compete better, what's it going to take? etc.
And maybe the answer comes back - hey, we're busting our A's to do that and the simple fact is that given the resources you've given us we can't...
Don't know.
IMHO, if they've somehow breaken away from the pack (and for the sake of argument, let's assume they have) it's more likely that the pack will catch up than MU will extend it's lead.
Just glad the chip I bought was a Siemens <g>
Good trading,
Tom |
