Barry - Re:"Would you please translate what all this means to long term INTC investors"
The New RAMBUS DRAMS (Newer than "today's" Rambus DRAMS), as Intel currently sees it, will be required to provide main memory for Intel's upcoming P7/Merced processor in the 1999 time frame.
Intel's P7/MERCED will have such a voracious appetite for memory and MEMORY SPEED, that current DRAM technology, and "planned" DRAM technology for 1999, will not be fast enough to feed the P7 with data without significantly slowing down the processor.
Without going in to more details, Intel has recognized a "Speed bump in the road" to optimized system performance for its planned P7/Merced 64 bit microprocessor.
Intel is taking the PROACTIVE (this is one of lingo terms that semiconductor makers in Silicon Valley like to use) stance to identify the memory speed requirements for this future processor, and put into place programs that will address these issues, leading to design and development of the proper memory chips to mate with the P7 in a time frame that will dovetail with the introduction of P7-based systems.
A more simplistic translation, and I don't mean to be smug, is that Intel is looking out for it's future and making sure that the P7 will be a major success at the SYSTEM level. In so doing, it is looking out for us shareholders.
Intel management is paving the road to the future, and for us, it may be lined with gold!
Paul |
