Today's posts have been interesting, if a little on the salty side. But from what I gather there are in fact two clearly defined views on this thread.
We have those who are here because INTC is here. And we have those who want more justification than this high profile association.
It seems to me that both views have something to say for themselves. Neither approach should be ignored. But the clash between the two seems to beg for an answer to the question of what INTC would do if it, for whatever reason, has to step away from RMBS in the next 6 months.
From my "Pop" perspective it would seem to me that it would be the biggest threat INTC has ever had. Bigger than Beta v. VHS. It would seem to threaten INTC's control of the chip business as well as even bigger market share losses to AMD.
If INTC truly believes RMBS technology is not D-D-D, why wouldn't it, either directly or through RMBS itself, buy up all the DRDRAM capacity it wants. They certainly have the money.
What is more important to INTC? Its ability to maintain and expand its control of chip and CPU markets, or RMBS' royalties and RMBS profitability? I don't know what INTC has already spent on RMBS, but aside from the payments to fabs and the original warrant purchase lets say they spent a billion, without considering any equity they received from the fabs as part of the deal.
It seems to me that if INTC truly believes that RMBS is the future of memory design, the side benefit to them of shutting out AMD, VIA, MU, et al., from the "bus" would seem to make shelling out another Billion or even more if needed in order to buy DRDRAM wafer starts and thus drive down the cost of DRDRAM, well worth the price. I mean, it wouldn't be money down the rat hole. They would in fact be able to resale the product. Presumably the resales would earn a worth while price since presumably the market will support this amazingly improved memory system.
So the question is, why aren't they doing that? Or will they start doing it sometime in the next 6 months if it isn't already too late?
Could it be that Carl is in the end correct? Have the anti RMBS factions inside INTC won the war? Have they lost faith in the ability of the bus to deliver as promised?
If not, then I don't see much of an alternative for INTC. The fabs are going to produce that which provides them the most profit. If INTC believes the DRDRAM works and that the market needs and will pay for what it, they will buy the DRDRAM, and build the chips, MBs, and PCs to fill that demand. The price for DDR DRAM will fall through the floor because no one will want it, and INTC will have the control over the direction of the PC systems that they seem to want.
So I ask why is INTC not buying DRDRAM wafer starts? |
