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Technology Stocks : Ultratech Stepper

UTEK 30.23

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Jun 5 5:00 PM EST

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To: Rob-Chemist who wrote (1086)	8/4/1997 3:32:00 PM
From: Andrew Vance	of 3696

I am smiling because I am intimately aware of the HYUNDAI-SYMBIOS LOGIC liasion. There are things relative to this that I am not at liberty to discuss or divulge but you hit the nail on the head. Hyundai effectively bought their way into the ASIC market with the acquisition of the semiconductor portion of ATT-GIS (correct designation for the entity sold <GGG>). TSMC is no longer content with FOUNDRY status and is going down a path that will allow them to provide their own designs. Windbond already has access to an ASIC library due to previous technology transfers or purchases of technology. Chartered has a few strategic alliances and has been invested in by companies that may have or will share design libraries. The handwriting is on the wall and your comments: ASICs are a much more difficult market to get into since virtually every product is non-standard. To become an effective player that both designs and manufacters, it seems to me that they would need to either license other cores and/or cell libraries, or purchase and/or enter joint ventures with established ASIC manufactures that already have a useful library. hit the nail right on the head. All these things are happening or have already occurred. The alternative would be that the Taiwanese Fabs would just do custom manufacturing for US/Japanese/European design houses. How easy would it be for a Fab to develop the capacity to manufacter a many different ASICs, given the large number of unique processes for ASIC manufacture? Actually, ASICs are more reticle/mask intensive than process intensive. For any given customer there are probably only 2 processes: a digital or mixed signal process. Even this is really one standard process with the analog (mixed signal) module as an add in. ASICs can generally be considered as either Cell library based or Gate Array based. Once you establish a given library, you manufacture all future products around the library and the established process. The real difficulty is in the design of new cells to me the ASIC needs of the customer. These new cells are, for the most part, manufactured in the existing process technology. Andrew BTW-as high as the AMAT and LRCX PEs are, you are 100,000%<GGG> correct about it not coming close to the absudities of MacDonalds and Coke.

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