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 : Lam Research (LRCX, NASDAQ): To the Insiders -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Duker who wrote (3829)	1/11/2000 9:42:00 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 5867

Chip foundries could take over the 300-mm movement too By J. Robert Lineback Semiconductor Business News (01/11/00, 09:00:14 AM EDT) PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Make way for the pure-play silicon foundries, which are not only driving the long-awaited recovery in semiconductor capital investments but now it appears they will become real heavyweights in the early round of 300-mm wafer fabs. Dedicated foundry companies could account for up to half of the 40 or more 300-mm fabs that are expected to be in place by the middle of this decade, according to Michael M. Pawlik, vice president of corporate marketing at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Speaking at the industry's first executive summit of 2000 here this week, Pawlik predicted that at least 20 of these "megafabs"--costing as much as $4 billion each--could be operated by dedicated foundries in the 2005-06 timeframe. "The question is what companies can afford this level of investment and be able to quickly load these fabs with products?" asked the executive from TSMC, which is the world's largest foundry supplier. Dedicated foundry companies, serving multiple chip houses and other customers, are expected the most likely candidate to make these huge investments, according to Pawlik and industry analysts during the annual Industry Strategy Symposium. Dataquest analyst Clark Fuhs not only agrees, but he believes silicon foundries could end up with more than half of the 300-mm wafer fabs by 2008. "The 300-mm generation will not be driven by the same forces of previous wafer diameters," maintained Fuh in an interview prior to his presentation today at the ISS meeting. "This time the larger-diameter wafers are not required because of larger die sizes but because of the sheer volume of silicon or 'cash flow' of capacity in fabs," said the Dataquest analyst, who is based in San Jose. "It's coming down to the size of the facility." With Taiwan's largest foundry companies now gearing up to process 60,000 to 80,000 eight-inch wafers a month in their next new chip plants, Fuhs believes 200-mm diameter substrates will becoming less practical and finally give way to 300-mm (or 12-inch) wafers. For nearly three years, fab equipment manufacturers have been waiting for 300-mm tool orders after investing billions of dollars to develop them, but high startup costs, the chip recession, and the ability to shrink devices have held back the migration to the larger wafer size. But the holdup is changing, said semiconductor analyst Bill McClean of IC Insights Inc., who presented his chip forecast before the annual meeting sponsored by the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) trade group. McClean said he is now anticipating a wave of 300-mm fab announcements in the next several months. "IBM has said it does not want to be among the last to build 200-mm fabs, and in a couple of months it will announce its 300-mm fab," said the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based analyst. Two weeks ago, silicon foundry United Microelectronics Corp. of Taiwan announced it was accelerating and expanding its efforts in 12-inch wafer fabs by creating a joint venture with Hitachi Ltd. in Japan. The 300-mm venture is expected to quickly equip a building owned by Hitachi to begin production early next year. In Taiwan, UMC also plans to begin production in a wholly-owned 300-mm fab during the second half of 2001. "If things go extremely well with the Hitachi joint venture, we could pull up the schedule for the Tainan fab [in southern Taiwan] to mid-2001," said Jim Kupec, manager of worldwide marketing and sales at UMC. TSMC has also broken ground for its first 300-mm in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The facility is expected to be in production by early 2002. Pawlik said other new and planned 8-inch wafer fabs in Taiwan could be converted into 300-mm facilities if more silicon capacity was needed in the middle of the decade. For the current recovery cycle, Taiwan's TSMC and UMC are unquestionably the most aggressive spenders on new fab capacity. Both are planning to spend more than $2 billion in 2000 to increase wafer processing as demand grows. The foundries are also now attempting to lure fab-operating integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), which are beginning to outsource more of their capacity. "The foundries did not hesitate to start spending last year," McClean said. "They are in a race to convince the IDMs to not put in that next fab for themselves." McClean sees the foundry companies growing their share of processed semiconductors from 13% in 1999 to 18% in 2000, accounting for 8.4 million eight-inch equivalent wafers out of the industry's 47.8 million total. In 1998, foundries manufactured just 8%--or 3.5 million wafers--out of the industry's 43.9 million wafers, he said. And as wafer diameters grow, so does the foundry business. Dedicated foundries were processing 6% of the industry's 6-inch wafers for CMOS devices, said TSMC's Pawlik. Foundries are processing about 14% of the 8-inch wafers today, he said. "Once 12-inch is in place, foundries could have 30% to 50% the capacity," Pawlik predicted.

To: Duker who wrote (3829)	1/11/2000 3:03:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5867

Japan's PC Sales Reach Record High in 1st Week of Dec. January 11, 2000 (TOKYO) -- Personal computer sales in Japan during the first week of December 1999 reached an all-time high both in units and value. Particularly noteworthy is that in terms of amount, sales surpassed the "last-minute demand" immediately before the implementation of the consumption tax hike in March 1997. According to Gfk Japan Ltd., PC sales at about 2,000 retail stores during the first week of December (Dec. 6-12, 1999) increased 24.0 percent in units and rose 26.8 percent in amount, compared with the previous week. Gfk Japan Ltd. is an information service company handling POS data of 55 household electric appliance retail stores. In comparison with the same week a year ago (Dec. 7-13, 1998), PC sales soared 29.4 percent in units and 13.4 percent in amount. The average sales price rose to 203,357 yen, up 4,553 yen from the previous week's 198,804 yen. (104.39 yen = US$1) The growth rate in sales of both desktop/tower and notebook PCs exceeded 20 percent, in comparison with the previous week. The extremely brisk tone of the market was the first such case since the second week of February in 1999 (Feb. 8-14). The figures comprised a 24 percent increase from the previous record-high in units and 7 percent in amount. In terms of units, sales in the fourth week of November (Nov. 22-28) had renewed the prior record. But in terms of amount, the pace of growth was a step behind, partly because of lowered prices, and it met the prior record marked in the fourth week of March 1997 (March 24-30), just before the consumption tax hike was implemented. The average sales price returned to the level in the middle of November. This was attributed to the growth in the sales of notebook PCs and the favorable tone of space-saving models with liquid crystal displays (LCDs), a high-priced type among the desktop PCs. GfK Japan collects POS data from 55 IT-related retail sales companies centering on high-volume stores specializing in home electric appliances. It covers about 3,200 stores (as of April 1998) throughout Japan. In cooperation with GfK Japan, Nikkei Market Access provides weekly reports of PC sales in terms of volume and value. The sales data has been based on the same 41 companies (with about 2,000 stores) since April 1996. The number of PCs sold at the 2,000 stores is estimated to comprise about 10 percent of gross domestic shipments, and when limiting the sales to retail sales channels, the share comes to about 25 percent of such shipments. nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com

To: Duker who wrote (3829)	1/11/2000 9:38:00 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5867

New IC Designers Mushroom in Taiwan, Plan to Issue Stock in 2000 January 11, 2000 (TAIPEI) -- Taiwan's integrated circuit designing sector is developing rapidly, with scores of such companies having been set up. Their greatest challenges this year, however, are whether or not they can solicit support from contract manufacturers of wafers and if their plan to go public will be approved.<BR><BR>There are now at least 130 IC designing companies in Taiwan, second only to California's Silicon Valley. In addition to companies established by enterprises that are listed on the local over-the-counter market, there are also IC designers invested by research organizations working with conglomerates and venture capital firms. In addition, some Chinese-Americans have shifted their IC designing companies from the United States to Taiwan. As most newcomers are still in the initial stage of operations without any profits, it is difficult for them to negotiate with contract manufacturers of wafers. Unless they have products with great market potential and bright prospects, new IC designing companies are expected to be troubled by difficulties getting support from wafer manufacturers.<BR><BR>IC designers that have operated for some time are actively planning to list their stock on the Taiwan Stock Exchange or the OTC market this year. Elan Microelectronics Corp. has been approved to go public in the OTC market in the first quarter, and is most likely to become a new star in the market. Destiny Technology Corp. plans to apply for an OTC listing in the second quarter. <BR><BR>The company, composed of software, Internet and ASICs, among other units, reported NT$725 million in operating revenues for 1999. Prolific Technology Inc. hopes to trade its stock on the OTC market in two to three years. Its operating revenues are seen reaching NT$400 million this year, with USB ICs as a major product. Moreover, Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. plans to send in an application for an OTC listing in June. (Commercial Times, Taiwan)

To: Duker who wrote (3829)	1/12/2000 10:26:00 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5867

PC soon will play second fiddle to communications as chip consumer By Robert Ristelhueber EE Times (01/12/00, 09:51:26 AM EDT) PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. ( ChipWire) -- The personal computer will be eclipsed shortly as the pre-eminent consumer of semiconductors, with communications and a new consumer platform taking center stage, according to speakers at the Industry Strategy Symposium here this week. "In the first half of the decade, communications will overtake PCs," predicted Clark Fuhs, a vice president at Dataquest in San Jose. The last few years have already seen a dramatic shift, with communications doubling its share of the chip market since 1995, to 22%, while PCs have dipped from over 30% to around 25% today. What's more, communications will surpass all computing platforms as a semiconductor consumer by the end of this decade, Fuhs said. This will have a far-reaching impact on chip suppliers, he predicted. "The communications market is fundamentally different from the computing market, with diverse technologies and fragmented competition. It's also very quick-moving." Manufacturing will be affected, since communications-chip suppliers are more likely to use outside foundries than PC-chip vendors do. In addition, since many communications circuits are built with analog or mixed-signal processes, they tend to use older process technology. "There are some products that will still be driven by 0.7- and 0.8-micron," Fuhs said. This will present a challenge to chip manufacturers, since they will need to adopt a broad range of processes. "We could see the emergence of a market for lagging-edge equipment," he said, adding, "There are lot of g-line steppers still being shipped." He doubted the trend would slow the adoption of new process technology, though, since a number of communications circuits, such as network processors, will still need to stay on the leading edge. Meanwhile, the emergence of a new digital platform for the home will eclipse the PC in the home in a few years, predicted Takeshi Oto, director of multimedia development for the System LSI Engineering and Development Division of Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. in San Jose. This new platform would likely combine the functionality of the digital set-top box with the video game player, he said. The PC will be hard-pressed to expand its presence in the home because of its price and user-unfriendly status, Oto said. Before a new digital platform can dominate, however, its price must drop below $100, and issues of standards and copyright protection for digital media must be resolved, he said. The PC's PCI bus doesn't address copy protection.