Dear Tony, I can not look into the writer's mind, but Texas Instruments has made Sun's chips for quite awhile, as far as I know, so I assume TI and SUNW have a good business relationship, and TI can keep up with Sun's demand, for the most part.
I own shares in TXN, and I don't recall that TXN has ever said that it cannot keep up with Sun's demand.
But from personal experience, Sun products are hot! For instance, my husband had to wait a couple of months b4 he got his Solaris workstation because of the chip shortage.
Further thoughts: TI and SUNW determined accurately how many chips SUN would need in the future compared to Intel:
"Unlike with desktop chips, which are similar except for clock speed, the large-cache Xeon chips are much larger and therefore require Intel to plan farther in advance to build Xeons, said ABN Amro analyst David Wu.
He believes manufacturers are getting the Xeons they ordered but aren't getting extra supplies they want.
Fister said Intel's top priority is to fill orders based on customers' forecasts.
Goldman Sachs analyst Joe Moore said in a research note yesterday that Intel's capacity constraints "are still fairly severe." And Banc of America Securities' Richard Whittington said the pace at which computer makers have been able to build PCs has been "held back by Intel's production problems," specifically the transition to the .18-micron production line that allows faster chips.
Ahari said Intel's supply problem is good news for Sun Microsystems, a rival server maker that designs computers build around Sun UltraSparc chips manufactured by Texas
Instruments. Sun, he said, can boast, "Hey, we make our own things. We control our own destiny."
Still, Texas Instruments predicts that next quarter will be a good quarter, and I haven't heard a Sun spokesperson say that Sun would have problems next quarter.
I wish I could be more helpful.
Best Wishes,
Mephisto |
