Arthur
But Adaptec's problems go deeper than glutted inventory at PC makers. Its core
product has become dangerously outmoded as Intel Corp. (Nasdaq, INTC) has
incorporated storage function on its standard chip sets at far lower prices, or, as
Saviers puts it, ''Intel essentially makes that technology free.'' .....
Which core product? and what were the sales? etc.
Also how does the Merced delay affect ADPT?
The reference is to Intel incorporating IDE controllers into the
PC "core logic". In other words, Intel have provided cheap (and good
performance) disk support by adding a little more silicon to the
"support" devices they already make. Since most PC vendors use
Intel motherboards (or board sets based on these same core building
blocks), the majority of newer PCs have IDE disk support at minimal
incremental cost.
An associated development is that the drive vendors have produced
very high capacity products, and have worked with Intel (and others)
to ensure that the newer IDE interfaces are fast.
These two developments together make it possible to provide a PC with
large storage capacity, good performance and at very low price.
In this context, the rug has been pulled out from under the "mass"
SCSI market. Comparatively the drives are much more costly, the
controllers are an incremental expense (to the core PC), and the
additional cabling/interconnect/termination is bulky and expensive.
Given the base capabilities of the new PCs, there are very few people
in the mainstream who will find a need for, or be able to justify the
additional cost of SCSI.
Only at the high end does SCSI still have any advantages. Primarily
it allows long cable runs (a few metres) and multiple devices (7).
In addition it supports slightly higher transfer rates, which do
not degrade significantly with transactions. Unfortunately, ADPT
does not have as good a product portfolio at this high end......
Merced is not likely to affect ADPT much. For the short term, Merced
will be a high-end processor, used in high-end products. Since ADPT
is not (yet ?) a significant player in the high-end market, this is
unlikely to affect its sales.
Mark |
