Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : DSS: DLT finally open for trading -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Z Analyzer who wrote (74)	9/30/1999 10:20:00 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 488

Z, "Super DLT on track for eval shipments early 2nd half 1999 and volume later in year." Well, here is what the person I spoke with said: evaluation units are being shipped on time (they are, it is second half 99). After evaluation units are shipped, and any possible bugs ironed out, then qualification units are shipped (as per you post of yesterday). These are produced, as I understand it, on the assembly line, and are what they say they have been calling "volume shipments". That, they say, is what they expect in CYQ1 of '00. Their OEMs have to have time to qual the units, and, given the complexity of the unit, they (DSS) are assuming that it will take longer rather than shorter. Hence their mid00 date for what we think of as "volume ramp". They are claiming that they have always said this, always planned it. What makes it seem more credible to me is the DLT8000. Why bring out the 8000 in Sept if SDLT was actually going to be volume ramped in our sense of the word just 4 or 5 months later? Made no sense to me then, makes more sense now. You sound bitter. Perhaps I should be as well, I don't know--I don't know about "rich", I don't know how you would define it, but if it had panned out the way we had hoped two years ago, then I would have been well enough off as well. Perhaps I would be more pissed if I hadn't taken money out of drives last year and put it in companies like TER, DPMI, SNDK, FLEX and JBL, to name the better investments I made at that time. If QNTM misses their mid-00 date, I will be pretty steamed. I guess you think that that is too late already, I don't. I don't have much faith in Exabyte's management, nor do I think LTO is a layup. While I can't claim to know as much as you--or, for that matter, Gus (where has he been, anyway?)--about tape drives, I know enough to know that they aren't things that you can develop and assemble as easily as disk drives.