Rambus...
Did you ask him about Rambus?
Yes.
He doesn't follow hardware very closely. He knows Rambus for RDRAM, but not as a chip-to-chip communications company, extending into Storage, Networking, HDTV, etc. he wonders why Best Buy doesn't feature more RDRAM models, and he notes his own satisfaction with SDRAM.
He is unimpressed with Rambus, and with Intel, stating that he is satisfied with his low grade Pentium, and doesn't understand the need for faster and faster chips/memory. No new killer apps. He has no comeback when confronted with the standard Intel arguement that over the past 2 decades, consumers and business always step up to higher speeds despite anticipating no greater future needs. Future needs are usually underappreciated.
I told him Rambus is a gamble, but with high potential.
He seemed surprised to hear of its position in HDTV (3 or 4 OEMs in Japan). I said, the TV is even more popular with consumers than the PC; look at the potential for future replacements as we migrate to HDTV. He pointed out he has 4 TVs, some 20 years old, and sees no need to replace them.
I don't think he is an early adopter of hardware. <g> |
