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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RDM who wrote (63769)	6/30/1999 1:08:00 AM
From: Charles R	Respond to of 1575622

Tuesday June 29, 11:36 pm Eastern Time Taiwan's Via Tech surges on reports of Cyrix deal TAIPEI, June 30 (Reuters) - Shares in Taiwan chipset maker Via Technologies Inc surged in late Wednesday trade on expectations it would buy a stake in National Semiconductor Inc's (NYSE:NSM - news) loss-making Cyrix PC processor business. At 0331 GMT, with less than 30 minutes of trading to go, Via shares were trading at T$214, up the daily seven percent volatility limit from Tuesday's T$200 close. Via executives said on Wednesday the firm had agreed to ally with National but would not confirm reports it would take over the Cyrix unit, which makes central processing units that compete with Intel's market-leading Pentium CPUs. Via spokesman Chang Yu-ta said a news briefing would be held in Taipei on Wednesday at 0700 GMT (3 p.m. local) to unveil details of the alliance but declined to comment further. U.S. industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday that National Semiconductor had reached an agreement to sell the money-losing Cyrix operations to Via, which makes microchip sets, and that the deal could be announced as early as Wednesday. The value of the deal was not immediately available. A spokesman for National Semiconductor, based in California's Silicon Valley, said the company remained in talks with several companies -- including Via -- to sell part of Cyrix and that the deadline for bids is Wednesday, June 30. He declined to comment any further. (US$=T$32.3)

To: RDM who wrote (63769)	6/30/1999 1:47:00 AM
From: Yougang Xiao	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1575622

RDM: Re: Cyrix/Via IP issue. You bring out a very interesting issue! If Intel can successfully fend Via off Slot 1 or 370, Via can still stick with S7 or SS7. Even with possible Intel success on the established platform IP issues, Via, to a larger degree, the Taiwan Inc, can cook out whatever platform for future Cyrix processors, after all, Taiwan is a huge platform player. Formosa Plastics is the GE of Taiwan, with a much, much more deeper pocket that AMd can only dream of. With Cyrix in hand, The Formosa empire can pump out tens of millions of cheap PCs to flood the Greater China market, then worldwide market. My worst fear is that today's sub 1k PC, say 800 system, will be tomorrow's high end!! Via will bring to the world a rapidly changing PC market, I am afraid, to the worse. Not killing off the Via/Cyrix deal will remain Intel's biggest mistake.

To: RDM who wrote (63769)	6/30/1999 2:20:00 AM
From: kash johal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575622

RDM, Re: "Via/Cyrix" I suspect that Via will have to use an x86 licensed fab partner to fabricate the parts. Obviously NSM short term, but they can always partner with IBM/TI/STM etc later on. I doubt very much that the x86 license is transferable to Via or would be transferred by NSM. ALso remember NSM will be building integrated x86 chips such as GX and MXi etc for set tops and IA's, so they need the x86 license for in-house chips. Initially I was very concerned about it but it seems to me that Via'a x86 parts such as MII's will be way behind the AMD and Intel Mhz ramp. However perhaps with a better process and alternate fab (such as IBM) they may compete in higher end. Short term its no big deal for Intel or AMD but will likely hurt rise/idt and also the alternate chip set guys who will get leveraged by VIA. NSM still has a major problem with the fab. and even if TSMC buys in their process is uncompetitive with AMD/Intel current capability and it will be a year before they can possibly ramp up decent capacity there. Regards, Kash