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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Charles R who wrote (85544)	1/6/2000 2:11:00 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572506

Though I am somewhat baffled for its runup..... Chuck, FYI _________________________________________________________ Rambus Ramps on String of Good News By Marcy Burstiner Senior Writer 1/5/00 11:09 PM ET SAN FRANCISCO -- Rambus (RMBS:Nasdaq - news) is fighting back. Shares of the controversial developer of high-speed computer memory rose 9 15/16, or 13%, to 80 1/2 Wednesday after Japanese market research firm Nikkei Market Access predicted that Rambus-based memory would make up 16% of the PC market this year, higher than previously anticipated. The rise in share prices marked the stock's first significant jump since Intel (INTC:Nasdaq - news)introduced its long-delayed Rambus-based chipset Nov. 15. But some analysts expressed caution that alternatives to Rambus' memory technology would gain market acceptance faster than Rambus. The report was the latest piece of good news for the company this week. On Monday, memory-maker Samsung (SSNHY:Nasdaq ADR - news) said it would develop this year Rambus dynamic random-access memory chips, or DRAMs, which have twice the capacity of today's 144-megabit chips. Samsung is the only memory-maker producing Rambus-based memory for PCs. Also on Monday, Electronic Buyers News reported that the head of marketing for Samsung Semiconductor, Avo Kanadjian, has left to join Rambus' management team. Until this summer, investors had flocked to Rambus' stock for its potential earnings growth: Because it doesn't make chips but licenses chip designs, Rambus incurs almost no production costs. But Intel buckled to pressure from memory-makers and agreed to develop products for a competing memory technology, called PC 133 synchronous DRAM. Wednesday's stock rise puzzled even some Rambus bulls. Warburg Dillon Read analyst Seth Dickson noted that the market estimates from Japan were roughly what his firm has been forecasting for months, and those numbers are significantly below what had been expected if Intel had launched its Rambus chipsets in the fall as promised. "It will take time," he said. Dickson has a strong buy rating on the stock, and Warburg is not an underwriter of Rambus. And memory-makers like Micron (MU:NYSE - news) that halted production of Rambus parts in September have yet to restart production lines. Jeff Mailloux, director of DRAM marketing for Micron, said his company won't be able to produce Rambus DRAMs in large volumes until at least April. "We are putting the final touches on our parts," Mailloux says. Rambus officials were not available for comment. Intel spokesman Daniel Francisco said Intel "will continue to support" Rambus. Intel plans to support double data rate memory for servers next year, Francisco says. DDR memory is seen as a next-generation and lower-cost alternative to Rambus. One memory industry executive, who requested anonymity, said he expected Rambus would make up only 5% of the PC market this year. Neither Micron nor Hyundai are currently producing Rambus chips and together they hold 40% of the memory market, he said. Meanwhile, DRAM products seen as an alternative to the expensive Rambus chips have been selling well. Via Technologies of Taiwan is shipping about 3.5 million chipsets a month, up from about a million a month one year ago, said Via spokesman Dean Hays. Chipsets are devices that connect a microprocessor to a memory chip. The increase, he said, is mainly from sales of PC-133, high-speed memory that sells at a lower cost than Rambus. And the company is sampling chipsets for double data rate DRAM. Dickson still believes Rambus will capture a large portion of the PC memory market this year and next. He expects that by next quarter Toshiba and NEC (NIPNY:Nasdaq ADR - news) will be producing Rambus chips in large volumes, and Infineon, Micron and Hyundai will be doing so by the summer. By the second half of this year, Dickson says, investors will see Rambus memory in $1,200 machines, which will take it into the mainstream segment of the computer market. But even Dickson is cautious. He said that increasing sales of Rambus machines will depend on Intel's ability to come out with improved Rambus chipsets by the second half of this year without any more delays.