To: grok who wrote (29706 ) 9/16/1999 8:48:00 PM From: Dave B Read Replies (2) | Respond to
Whoa, KZ, your anti-Intel, anti-marketing bias is showing, bud! <G><Sure, they respond to Intel's boot heel on their throat because they have no choice.> do have a choice. In December 1996, Intel basically said "in the best interest of our customers, and in the interest of providing the best performance on our processors, we are planning on supporting RDRAM in the chipsets that we sell in the future". Any of the DRAM manufacturers could then say "I'm not going to build RDRAM". Intel would not, in their best Arnold Schwarznegger voice, respond "well, then, I must crush you" and try to drive them out of business. They'd say "that's fine, that's your choice. We'll just go get others to make RDRAM." And off they would go. In the end, they'd find other manufacturers who would be happy to make RDRAM because most of them would recognize that there's an opportunity to sell products there. Maybe they'd even give them some seed capital to help defray the costs. Meanwhile, the vendors who decided not to build RDRAM could continue building SDRAM, DDR DRAM, VC DRAM, whatever they wanted. And sell it to AMD customers, or whoever wants SDRAM or DDR DRAM or VC DRAM. Intel would not try to destroy them. In fact, not all memory manufacturers have signed on to make RDRAM at this point -- do you think that Intel is taking active steps to drive them out of business? It's simply a market opportunity, and the manufacturers can decide to take advantage of it or not. They certainly do have a choice.In fact, over the next several months Rambus will be really lucky if they don't get a stigma attached to them for one or more of the following:
