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

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (32719)	10/4/1999 3:19:00 PM
From: Ian@SI	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

Brian, You're slowing down. You missed a story at SemiBiznews site. ;-) Extract follows. Whole story including some nice charts may be found at: semibiznews.com Want some good news for a change? Forget about September earthquakes in Taiwan or stock market plunges in New York. It now looks to Bill McClean, veteran market watcher at IC Insights, Inc. that “a full-fledged IC industry upturn may already be in progress.” His trigger was July computer bookings. Both communications equipment and computer bookings have displayed steady growth for most of 1999, he notes. But July computer bookings broke out of this trend line, soaring 19% over the previous month. “This was one of the biggest one-month increases on record,” he says. Bookings would have shown an even bigger surge, McClean adds, if the average-selling-prices of PCs weren't falling. While the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based market researcher claims it never reacts to a one-month data point, McClean dug deeper and came up with nine more reasons why his firm is very optimistic about the IC industry for the remainder of 1999 and for 2000. 1) The Asia-Pacific region recovery appears to have begun. Morgan Stanley raised its South Korean 1999 GDP forecast from 4.8% to 8.6% over 1998. 2) There appears to be diminishing concern over the possibility of severe computer purchase cutbacks in advance of Y2K. Dell Computer, for example, does not expect a fourth-quarter cutback on PC purchases. 3) NEC Electronics has started to build up additional IC inventory to guard against supply disruptions from Y2K effects. This could signal the start of a significant IC inventory build by electronic system suppliers, McClean says. 4) SST expects very strong fourth quarter financials based on its customers telling the flash memory maker that they plan to build Y2K “buffer inventory,” he says--another sign that Y2K IC inventory mania building. 5) Because of “very strong” industry July results. (The flash market, for example, jumped 100%), McClean expects third quarter sales to show a 10% increase, the largest third quarter increase of the 1990s. 6) A stronger yen is beginning to push up chip market figures, which are reported in U.S. dollars. The July IC market was based on an exchange rate of 119 yen to the dollar, a ratio that has now fallen to the 104-to-106 yen area. MacClean expects to see a big surge in revenues for August and September by the Japanese IC market. 7) The average-selling-price for microprocessors jumped from $71.70 in June to $89.80 in July, a one-month ASP increase of 25%. “Amazing what decreased competition can do to pricing,” McClean notes. 8) The major IC foundries are running at 100% capacity utilization for their 0.35-micron and finer processes. The Fabless Semiconductor Association's latest survey indicates a 50% increase in wafer demand over last year; that's up from the 41% increase in demand in last year's survey. 9) Worldwide MOS IC capacity utilization jumped from 85.9% in the first quarter this year to 91.5% in the second quarter. IC industry capacity, McClean points out, will be the most important factor in determining the direction of the IC market over the next 12 months. One way that capacity can grow, IC Insights believes, is from the so-called “hidden capacity” affect, where die shrinks increase the number of parts per wafer. But for more than four years, he says, the number of ICs shipped per wafer start has remained relatively flat. That's because the mix of ICs continues to move towards parts with higher levels of integration, he notes, which tends to offset the gains in the number of dice per wafer due to decreasing features sizes. But this year the picture is changing, according to McClean. The number of ICs shipped per wafer start will be 5% greater than in 1998, he predicts. That's because die shrink trends appear to be advancing faster than the move to higher density devices. In their typical overreaction to good and bad times, which has caused the famous boom-bust cycles in the IC industry, chip makers increased MOS capacity by a record 5.9 million 200-mm wafer equivalents in 1996. “In hindsight,” says McClean, “it's easy to see why IC pricing declined for three years in a row (from 1996 through 1998) for the first time in history.” But this year, MOS expansion is expected to be less than 10% of that in 1996. This 1% increase may be a record low, he says. While the industry is getting more good dice per wafer, IC Insight now says a “significant capacity shortage is a strong possibility over the next 18 months.” Next year, the market researcher predicts that IC producers will produce about 6 billion more IC units than they shipped in 1999. That means they will need to start an additional 4 million 200-mm wafers in 2000 to 49.8 million, McClean predicts. But with capital spending averaging only 19-to-20% of sales this year, IC Insights expects that capacity will increase by only 1-to-2 million 200-mm wafer equivalents to 51.6 to 52.6 million. Worldwide IC capacity utilization will range between 94.7-to-96.5%, “most likely triggering IC ASP increases of 10% or greater,” McClean predicts. This kind of ASP increase coupled with a 10% unit volume increase would drive total IC industry growth to 20%, he concludes.

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (32719)	10/5/1999 10:54:00 AM
From: Duker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

As a shareholder with dual allegiances ... I appreciate this order as much as anyone. --Duker Applied Materials Orders Five "Remote Assist" Customer Support Systems From Varian Semiconductor GLOUCESTER, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 5, 1999--Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc. (Varian) (Nasdaq NM: VSEA - news) and Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq NM: AMAT - news) today announced that Applied Materials, Inc. has purchased five of Varian Semicondutor's Remote Assist(TM) tools to enhance Applied Materials' equipment service and support programs. Leveraging virtual reality technology, Varian's Remote Assist is the first system to bring the eyes and ears of semiconductor equipment experts into remote fabs worldwide--with technology rather than expensive, time-consuming travel. Used to augment the expertise of service personnel who are on-site at customers' fabs, Remote Assist uses advanced video conferencing capabilities and a new video helmet to link equipment service personnel with engineers at the equipment supplier location. By sending real-time audio and video to the recipient, Remote Assist can speed system diagnostics and problem resolution, potentially increasing uptime and optimizing fab productivity. Commenting on the order, Walt Sullivan, vice president of worldwide customer support for Varian, explained that Remote Assist immediately provides semiconductor equipment fabs with a virtual on-site diagnostics expert. ``Although originally perfected for Varian customers, we are now sharing this technology with other equipment suppliers to deliver this breakthrough support capability throughout the fab. Using our Remote Assist system, any supplier can access emergency or preventive maintenance support in real time.' ``The Remote Assist units are an additional way of providing our customers with more comprehensive support solutions that can potentially increase the efficiency of their Applied Materials systems,' said Sass Somekh, senior vice president of Applied Materials. ``These units supplement the considerable investment made by Applied Materials in assuring the highest performance of our tools in our customers' fabs. It is another example of Applied Materials' commitment to using innovative ideas and technologies to maximize the productivity, uptime and availability of our systems while reducing cost of ownership.' Varian views this milestone order as a sharing of this customer support technology to elevate the level of service global chipmakers receive from their semiconductor equipment providers. Varian anticipates an increased demand for Remote Assist as more semiconductor equipment vendors leverage their customer service programs to deliver improved, cost-effective consultation and training. ``Remote Assist offers a completely new paradigm--an impressive way to get the experts to the problem,' said industry analyst and VLSI Research President G. Dan Hutcheson, who has seen the tool in operation. ``I fully expect Varian's Remote Assist to quickly sweep the industry and become an industry standard for service.' About Varian: Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc. (Nasdaq NM: VSEA - news), which spun out of Varian Associates, Inc. in early April, is headquartered in Gloucester, Mass. The company's product portfolio encompasses the complete range of ion implant tools, and Varian is the only supplier to have a common platform for single-wafer, high-tilt precision technology in medium-current, high-current and high energy systems. Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates also offers a world-class network of local and global support services, and is the first U.S. semiconductor equipment supplier to have both its customer support and manufacturing organizations certified to ISO 9000 standards. Information about Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates is available on the World Wide Web at www.vsea.com. About Applied Materials: Applied Materials, Inc. is a Fortune 500 global growth company and the world's largest supplier of wafer fabrication systems and services to the global semiconductor industry. Applied Materials is traded on the Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol AMAT. Applied Materials' web site is located at www.appliedmaterials.com.