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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Henry Eichorszt who wrote (31782)	8/9/1999 5:37:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

STMicroelectronics plans major moves in flash memories By Peter Clarke EE Times (08/09/99, 2:55 p.m. EDT) MILAN, Italy ? Determined to be a larger player in the flash memory market, STMicroelectronics hopes to capitalize on strong demand from cellular phone makers and set-top box manufacturers, particularly for 32-Mbit devices, which are in currently in short supply. STM expects to nail down a 10 percent share of the world flash market by the end of this year, up from the 7 percent it is reported to have at present. The company also aims to ramp flash-memory production significantly at new wafer fabs coming on stream next year. Over the longer term, STM is working to align its own flash technology road map with the Semiconductor Industry Association road map for DRAMs by about 2003. Flash introductions have traditionally trailed behind DRAM technology by one or two generations. Carlo Bozotti, corporate vice president and general manager of the memory group at STM, said he expects to double the company's flash-memory output by the end of the first quarter of 2000, through a range of capacity additions. The moves include an expansion of STM's main flash-memory fab in Catania, Sicily, from 4,000 eight-inch wafers per week to 5,500; the start of production at the R2 fab in Agrate, Italy; and contract manufacturing with STM's flash partner, Mitsubishi Electric. Mitsubishi recently announced it was converting a former DRAM fab near Aachen, Germany, to manufacture flash memories. "We now have a 32-Mbit flash device and we believe it is the world's smallest die size in a 0.25-micron process. It is designed to work at 1.8 V throughout, both the I/O and internally," Bozotti said. The device is organized in a double-banked architecture to allow concurrent reading and writing of data. Bozotti added that STM has taped out a 64-Mbit multibit-per-cell device developed with Mitsubishi. The device, which stores 2 bits per cell, operates at 3 to 5 V. This will be STM's first commercial multilevel flash device, mimicking a pioneering move made by Intel Corp., the flash market leader, with its StrataFlash device. However, at the CeBIT exhibition this past March, STM showed a prototype of a so-called "analog" flash memory that stores 4 bits/cell using 16 analog voltage levels. The "analog flash" was shown supporting the STA013 decoder chip, which is aimed at portable MP3 file players and PCs. OK for audio "We are designing a 32-megacell array that will be a 128-Mbit analog flash memory," said Guiseppi Zocchi, director of STM's central R&D. "The issue with 4 bits per cell is that access times are reduced. You can't go too fast, but for audio applications it's OK." Richard Gordon, memory analyst at Dataquest Europe (Egham, England), said, "Flash is becoming the new DRAM and we are starting to see it acquire a cyclical nature just like DRAM." According to Dataquest, the flash market was worth $2.8 billion in 1998 but should grow by 20 percent or more this year. The latest estimate pegs this year's market at $3.3 billion. Intel held 27.5 percent of the world flash market in 1998, according to Dataquest. Fujitsu Ltd. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. are tied for second place, with about 17.5 percent each. Curt Nichols, marketing director at Intel's flash products division, is taking STM's efforts in flash seriously, though he also believes a high-growth market will leave room for multiple players. "I think it is possible for STM to get to the No. 2 position, if STM is serious and AMD and Fujitsu get distracted," Nichols said. "But flash is notoriously difficult to manufacture." eetimes.com

To: Henry Eichorszt who wrote (31782)	8/9/1999 9:28:00 PM
From: Jeffrey D	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Henry:<<Chip-equipment makers rose in anticipation of Applied Materials' third-quarter earnings report due Tuesday. >> Henry, did AMAT change report date? AMAT website still shows report is a week from Tuesday; not tomorrow. Jeff

To: Henry Eichorszt who wrote (31782)	8/9/1999 10:21:00 PM
From: John O'Neill	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 70976

<<Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst Steven Pelayo expects Applied to post a strong quarter. He estimates that Applied will earn 53 cents a share, in line with the First Call consensus estimate. >> Isn't it amazing how all these highly paid analysts are always wrong....i can tell you that amat will earn more..more that .53 cents per share.....It's almost like a little children's game here...beat the expectations......does ANYONE on this thread honestly believe that Steven or Dean Witter REALLY expects amat will earn only.53?...or do you think he is just a pawn in the analyst game...a game encouraged by the companies to lowball estimates? no insult to mr Pelayo intended.....it's just that the beat the estimate game seems to have lost it's luster...and so...what will csco stock do when it "beats the estimate"?..will that encourage people to buy amat cause they think it will "beat the estimates?" comments appreciated