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Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Orion who wrote (31495)	10/3/1999 2:12:00 PM
From: grok	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 93625

Re: Microprocessor Forum I will be there. Rambus traditionally buys lunch for one of the days and maybe provides coffee mugs with advertising, etc. On Tuesday there will be a Coppermine presentation by Jim Wilson of Intel: <A Next-Generation Pentium III Processor with Performance Optimizations Jim Wilson, Product Architecture Manager, Intel An enhanced implementation of the Pentium III processor integrates the L2 cache and adds Geyserville technology for mobile applications. Optimizations in the cache interface and other improvements in the memory and bus interfaces boost microarchitectural performance. It will be interesting to see what he says about Rambus, if anything. If he doesn't say much it is likely that there will be questions about it from the audience during the panel session that follows. There is another panel session right after that: <Panel: PC System Architecture Trends Moderator: Peter N. Glaskowsky, Cahners MicroDesign Resources Panelists: Steven Przybylski, Verdande Group; Shing Wong, SiS; Jim Pappas, Intel; Jay Bell, Dell> Notice Steven Przybylski who used to be a strong Rambus supporter although I haven't heard much from him recently. Also, Jim Pappas from Intel (I don't know him) and Jay Bell of Dell (the guy who presented the benchmarks a IDF that seemed to show that Sdram was faster than Rdram). Also, the moderator Peter Glaskowski has a graphics background and this is the area that Rambus looks best in and Peter has mostly been a Rambus advocate. So this panel seems to have 4 Rambus leaning people against one poor guy from SiS who I suppose will try to hold up the Sdram position. Of course, with recent events people's positions may be changing. Then Tuesday night there is an Affinity session: <The Future of DRAMs: Rambus, DDR, and Beyond Moderator: Steven Przybylski, Verdande Group With Direct Rambus DRAMs finally reaching the market, the industry is on the verge of a major transition. Many questions remain, however, about just how rapid the transition will be, and what role will be played by the various alternatives. One of the memory industry's leading independent experts will lead a discussion of issues including: Will Direct Rambus finally make it to the mainstream? If so, when and at what price? Will Direct Rambus systems deliver a meaningful performance advantage? For what applications? Will DDR SDRAMs capture a significant market share? Will it be limited to servers, or will it find a role in desktop systems? When will the DRAM spot price stop rising? Will there be more consolidation in the DRAM industry? What does it all mean for system vendors? Which DRAM architectures and devices will graphics and embedded systems use in the future?> At Affinity sessions things are very informal and anyone from the audience can speak up. I could imagine this session getting very messy. And this is only Tuesday. I'll make another post for Wednsday.

To: Orion who wrote (31495)	10/3/1999 2:30:00 PM
From: grok	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

RE: Microprocessor Forum - Wednesday mdronline.com@19869323ywzqmn/mpf02/conf_2.html Wednesday begins with a Key Note from Ken Kutaragi about the Sony PSII. Ken will be in full scale sell mode just like he was at Embedded Processor Forum in May. He will certainly tout Rambus as one of the reasons PSII is so great. This should be Rambus' finest hour at this year's Forum. <Enabling the Next Era of Digital Entertainment Ken Kutaragi, President & CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment The executive behind Sony's highly successful PlayStation will present his views on how powerful microprocessors and digital media will change the entertainment landscape.> Following that is a session on 3D Graphics: <Accelerating 3D, Multimedia, and Network Processing Moderator: Peter N. Glaskowsky, Senior Analyst, Cahners MicroDesign Resources Today's fastest processors are those designed for multimedia, and many of today's graphics chips outstrip desktop processors in complexity and bandwidth while selling for less than $30. What enables these remarkable achievements? In this session, we'll hear from the makers of some of the newest and most interesting media processors and graphics chips on the market.> There will be 5 presentations in this session including Sun's MAJC processor and there is certain to be some of them directly interfacing to Rdram. A panel with all the presenters will follow and there are certain to be questions about Rambus from the audience. Following that are sessions on DSP Processors and Embedded Processors. These represent granularity opportunities for Rambus. It will be interesting to see how many of these products support Rambus. To wrapup there is this panel <Panel: The Future of Microprocessor Design Moderator: Michael Slater, Cahners MicroDesign Resources Panelists:Fred Pollack, Intel; Anant Agrawal, Sun Microelectronics; Peter Bannon, Compaq; Martin Hopkins, IBM; Fred Weber, AMD> Certainly Rambus will be one of the things discussed.

To: Orion who wrote (31495)	10/3/1999 2:49:00 PM
From: grok	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 93625

RE: Microprocessor Forum For those of you who read my previews of MPF on the last two posts, let me provide some analysis: Even though Unclewest is suspicious of the MDR guys (Who host the Microprocessor Forum and publish Microprocessor Report) because they are now part of Cahners and there is some link connected to the hip bone somehow to Bert McComas, let me say that MDR really represents the highest level of the technical press. Many of them are former designers and they are very well informed on what's happening in the industry. (Not that I agree with everything they say but their batting average with me is about .384 which ought to get them a batting title.) At Forums like this one Rambus has usually been considered as a certain success since it is high-tech and mundain issues like cost and reliability don't get a lot of consideration. Overall from my following of these MDR guys it seems like all of them have assumed that Rambus will soon take over the world and most of the presenters are people who feel the same way. However, this year's Forum comes at a tense time for Rambus. Unless Intel and Rambus pull a rabbit out of a hat by Tuesday, the current Rambus problems will certainly cast a shadow over this Forum. At this point I don't know if people will generally recommit to Rambus as a wonderful thing with a tiny, insignificant, temporary glitch or just treat it as a joke and heap abuse on it. By the way, many analyst attend MPF. What happens next week may well affect the stock price.