Hi all; Article on Rambus from the Far Eastern Economic Review:
Intel's Memory Loss Opens Doors in Asia
A series of miscalculations by the giant U.S. chip-maker has cost it business in Asia. With Intel weakened, the region's PC-component makers are calling their own shots--and capturing global market share.
By Simon Burns/TAIPEI and Charles S. Lee/HONG KONG
Issue cover-dated December 21, 2000
INTEL IS LOSING a battle for market share in Asia. A series of missteps by the world's largest computer-chip maker have weakened its ability to set the standards for chips used in personal computers. PC-component makers in Asia--unnerved and financially wounded by the company's recent production problems--are turning to other chip suppliers as a result.
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Chin Wu, president of another Taiwanese chip maker, Acer Laboratories, has seen competitors like VIA Technologies surge ahead while his own company's revenues, hitched more closely to Intel's plans, have lagged behind. "I regret that we followed Intel's guidelines so closely," he says.
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Intel's problems started not with processors or chipsets, but with a chip that it doesn't even make. In 1997, the company began telling its Asian partners about a new type of computer-memory chip, invented by U.S.-based Rambus.
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So Intel threw its considerable weight behind Rambus. During the next two years, Intel's attempt to shoehorn the powerful but expensive RDRAM chips into an increasingly price-sensitive PC market was to become a nightmare.
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But by early 1998, memory-chip makers and PC-hardware manufacturers were politely telling Intel that they weren't so keen on the new chip. The old standard, SDRAM, still had at least a couple of years of useful life in it, they reasoned. And in any case, they preferred another fast new memory technology, DDR, or Double Data Rate SDRAM. One reason was cost: Rambus charges up to 5% in royalties for use of its technology.
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Today, support for RDRAM remains lukewarm in Taiwan. And elsewhere in Asia, many of the companies that actually make memory chips are equally hesitant about the new technology. Hyundai Electronics Industries, the world's second-largest memory-chip maker, has chosen to opt out of RDRAM for now, along with most of Taiwan's memory-chip makers. Some analysts say neither cash-strapped Hyundai, nor the relatively small Taiwanese players, have the resources to back the expensive but commercially questionable chip.
But RDRAM shouldn't be written off. On the contrary, it's likely to continue to have niche applications.
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feer.com
-- Carl |
