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

To: Glenda King who wrote (32396)	10/20/1999 12:41:00 PM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 93625

ProfitStation? Dow Jones Newswires -- October 19, 1999 This story appears in the November issue of SmartMoney magazine. By Gerri Willis It's not just 15-year-olds who are eagerly awaiting the release of PlayStation2, Sony's newest game console, scheduled to hit U.S. stores next September. Wall Street is wild about it, too, sending Sony's ADRs up 104 percent already this year. But Wall Street may be overlooking a side benefit of the PlayStation2: Certain semiconductor makers are also bound to get a bounce from the superfast game machine. Sony contracts with three main chipmakers to supply its PlayStation line. And for at least one of them, PlayStation2 promises to be icing on an already fat cake. That's because recovering Asian economies have spurred chip demand and pushed prices higher in the past 10 months. As a result, semiconductor stocks have jumped 61 percent during that same period. Analysts predict this up cycle will continue through 2000 and 2001 as new technologies such as video for the Web and voice recognition fuel orders for new, more powerful chips. Earnings for the group are expected to grow 43 percent this year, according to First Call, making chips the fifth-fastest-growing sector of the market. That's a phenomenal rebound when you consider that earnings growth for the group slid 24 percent last year. For 2001, earnings should jump another 38 percent. PlayStation2 alone is anticipated to sell more units per year than palmtops or digital cameras, ultimately generating $1 billion in annual sales for the chip industry. Milpitas, Calif.-based LSI Logic (LSI, $59.06) is the chipmaker that stands to gain the most from Sony's newest gizmo. Already, LSI gets about $120 million, or nearly 7 percent of revenue, from the original PlayStation, and the next gaming console should easily push that revenue to $150 million next year, says Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst Mark Edelstone, who has a $75 target on the stock. LSI shares have already made a dramatic move this year, more than tripling from their low of $16.13. Even so, the stock still trades well below the chip industry's price/earnings ratio of 42 and the company's earnings- growth estimate of 108 percent for the year 2000. The company has the added advantage of supplying the continuing boom in building the Internet infrastructure. And because LSI has less than 5 percent of its production in Taiwan, worries about the earthquake are overblown. Sony's other two suppliers are less attractive. The biggest, Tokyo-based Toshiba, is unlikely to see a major impact from Sony, because logic chips -- the kind PlayStation uses -- make up only a minor portion of its business, which includes DRAM chips, PCs, disk drives, cable modems and consumer electronics. That's not the problem with Sony's third supplier. Rambus Inc., which designs chips, stands to gain $10 million in royalties from the new game console. But the tiny Mountain View, Calif., firm may be facing trouble in its newest business. Currently, Rambus is offering a promising technology for fixing the PC bottleneck that occurs in the transfer of data between memory and the computer processor. The launch has been plagued by pricing and production issues, leaving the market open to competitors.

To: Glenda King who wrote (32396)	10/20/1999 2:03:00 PM
From: Allen champ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Posted 20/10/99 5:14pm by Mike Magee (the Register) Intel i820 update leaks An internal Intel slide has revealed more details about the Rambus memory problem which scuttled the launch of the i820 Camino chipset, causing angry flushed faces at Chipzilla Central. And an Intel customer, who does not wish to be named, has now told us that he is expecting his two-RIMM mobos to arrive in late November. Another Intel customer says that the embarrassment is even greater because its Cape Cod mobo -- which uses SDRAM is ready to roll and works perfectly, but the company will not release it until its so-called flagship mobo, the Rambus-based Vancouver, is ready to roll. Sources close to Intel's plans add that it is under enormous pressure to ship the i820 mobo this year, otherwise it will lose enormous face both with Rambus Ink and the other six members of the Seven Dramurai. Kyle Bennett, over at HardOCP emailed us a copy of the Intel slide which makes interesting reading. As we reported earlier this week, the i840 chipset has no such Rambus problems, and that has prompted speculation that Intel may create an i840 lite for the desktop market. According to the slide, entitled Intel 840/820 Status Update W42.1, the i840 remains on target for W44 (that's next week, for us mere mortals on the planet earth). It states that for the i840 chipset, the final PTQ decision (whatever that is), considers a core kit only, comprising the MCH, the IHL, and the FWH. Decision on the P64H bridge technology, MRH-R and MRH-S will made at a later date. Intel now claims in the slide that it has identified the root cause of the memory errors. Its preliminary validation including simulation data on 2 RIMM only designs shows no failures, the slide says. But there is no launch date yet set, it adds. (In Intel speak, that's POR = plan of record). It adds that testing of the two RIMM design is the number one priority, and that Validation results now show that 2+2 RDRAM designs exhibit memory channel errors similar to those seen with 3RIMM designs. The PCG (that's the Platform Component Group in Intelspeak), is recommending a 0+2 design as the "time to market a MTH/SDRAM" solution. The PCG is providing a technical update in W43 -- err, that's this week. ©