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Technology Stocks : Applied Micro Circuits Corp (AMCC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (148)	6/26/1999 10:33:00 AM
From: Tech Bull	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1805

Ok, Here it goes Ray, BRCM is going to be king of communication protocol ICs. Some of my friends work at BRCM (and my alma mater is where the founder of BRCM taught) and in my opinion it has some of the best IC designers in the world. BRCM has good partners and solid vision. So buy BRCM irrespective of what happens to VTSS or AMCC. Regarding AMCC vs. VTSS SiGe is clear winner over GaAs MESFETs. This fact is attested by IBMs' push for SiGe. The level of integration you can get in silicon can never be beaten by GaAs folks. The only area they were strong was in speed but SiGe HBTs have Fts of 100GHz. Siemens is another company pushing SiGe. AMCC will have superiority in terms of versatility and product functionality since they can pack more transistors on one die compared to VTSS. OC-192 chips are surely brewing in these and many other companies. But the thing which will distinguish the winner will be the level of customer service and AMCC is pretty good at that. I have used AMCCs' SiGe chips for communication boards. They work very well and are easy to use (documentation etc.) But eventually the management vision will win and right now looks like AMCC has more of it than VTSS. SiC has been touted as good technology for high power applications. But so has been GaN. And I think GaN has more potential then SiC because of it's thermal properties. But these technologies will take a while and in any case SiGe will become main stream technology like CMOS and it will not go away anytime soon. Regarding BRCM vs. Rest of the World (CNXT,TI,INTC etc) I think BRCM is going to be a winner in next two years just because of the momentum they have (among amny other things). Beyond that I doubt even any Semi-analyst can predict will all the vicissitudes of semi-industry. Just my 2 cents. No strings attached! TB

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (148)	12/7/1999 4:52:00 PM
From: Beltropolis Boy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1805

Electronic Buyers' News December 06, 1999, Issue: 1189 Section: News Chip makers accelerate transition to copper Mark LaPedus and Macabe Keliher techweb.com Several chip makers and wafer foundries are making a strong bid to move copper-interconnect technology into the mainstream, with one provider bringing a new-and possibly revolutionary-twist to the table. At this week's International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington, D.C., IBM Microelectronics will introduce what it claims is the first chip technology that combines copper-interconnect technology and silicon germanium (SiGe) on the same device. Manufactured on a 0.18-micron, CMOS-based process-technology module, IBM's copper/SiGe technology will be incorporated in some of the company's standard chip products. It also will be made available in the future to IBM's foundry customers. Though the Asian foundries have yet to jump into the emerging SiGe market, they are beginning to ship their first wafers based on the promising copper-interconnect technology. Also this week, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. will stake its claim as the first pure-play foundry to offer copper-based wafers in volume. And TSMC's two major competitors -- Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. and Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. -- are not far behind. The foundries will give many chip makers access to the copper technology for the first time, paving the way for a new generation of high-speed but low-power devices. IBM's copper/SiGe process technology, for example, will enable the development of a wide range of high-end chips for LAN/WAN and wireless applications, according to Bernie Meyerson, director of telecom technologies at IBM Microelectronics, Fishkill, N.Y. "We're in the manufacturing-qualification stage right now," said Meyerson, who is considered the guru of IBM Micro's patented SiGe technology. IBM Micro, which won't say when it will deliver its copper/SiGe process to the merchant-chip and foundry business, said the technology is founded on its new 0.18-micron, SiGe-based process, which features 90-GHz cutoff rates. The company's copper process is a six-layer technology. SiGe itself is an enhanced BiCMOS technology that promises to offer the performance of gallium arsenide at the low-power levels of CMOS. Meanwhile, copper provides faster access times and other benefits over aluminum, the mainstream interconnect technology. IBM Micro has been shipping both SiGe and copper-interconnect technology for years, but its foundry competitors in Asia are in various stages of shipping copper-based wafers. "IBM is still ahead in terms of being able to offer copper at all layers," said analyst Joanne Itow of Semico Research Corp., Phoenix. "It sounds like TSMC has more customers in the development stages." Still, the market for copper-interconnect technologies remains embryonic, according to Itow. "The cost of implementing a copper process is supposed to come down, but until it does, customers are not really pushing for it," she said. "I think it will certainly become more mainstream with 0.13-micron processes." Making good on its earlier promise to offer the technology, Taiwan's TSMC this week will announce the first commercially available copper-interconnect process technology from a pure-play foundry. Based on 0.18-micron feature sizes, TSMC's copper-based technology is currently available in the form of a two-layer process, and will be available in a six-layer implementation down the road, according to Sheldon Wu, senior director of field technology at the company's U.S. subsidiary in San Jose. Initially, TSMC will produce 10,000 copper-based wafers, with plans to move into larger-scale production by the second half of 2000, Wu said. UMC is ramping copper-interconnect technology in its new fabs, said Peter Chang, chief executive of foundry operations at the Hsinchu-based company. Right now, UMC's new 8C fabrication facility is doing pilot runs with copper-interconnect technology at 0.25-micron geometries, with volume production slated for early next year, Chang said.

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (148)	3/14/2000 4:49:00 PM
From: Beltropolis Boy	Respond to of 1805

my sad attempt to take a tiny sting out of today's kick in the shins ... ----- Computer Reseller News March 13, 2000, Issue: 885 Section: Sourcing Target Hit: Expects to start shipping more than 5 million SiGe chips per month -- IBM Steps Up Its Silicon Germanium Processor Shipments Edward F. Moltzen New York - IBM Corp., buoyed by performance boosts and a growing market, may soon ship more than 5 million processors a month with its new Silicon Germanium technology, said a company executive. techweb.com