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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gnuman who wrote (75067)	2/2/2000 9:40:00 PM
From: Earlie	Respond to of 132070

Gene: As is well known, when a product is facing intense demand, its price goes UP, not down. (g) Some facts to help. - Dram prices have been more than cut in half over a period of several weeks. - There is dram inventory in the box builder plants. Box builders also have finished product inventories. - Corporations are not buying. - January witnessed good unit sales in the consumer sector (due to heavy price cutting) but by late January, consumer unit sales were softening fast. - Intel, as you point out, has found reason to provide TWO price cuts over the last few weeks. (must be that terrific demand that's causing it). - The Athlon has experienced a truly astonishing acceptance in the market place and has shipped at an equally astonishing rate. Currently, Intel does not have a production chip that can compete with the Athlon, hence it appears that the company is endeavouring to mask that nasty reality by playing die selection games. I read the Intel commentary carefully. Note "pending completion and validation of a new thermal solution",......shipped LATER IN THE YEAR...". Am I misreading this if I conclude that the company is not yet able to ship the particular chip mentioned, due to the fact that it is not yet ready for market? Note the reference to "continuing to ramp production at .18 micron. Again, this sure sounds like the language used when production or test problems are at hand and slowing the conversion. Contacts at Intel have clammed up. No one wants to say much. Earlier though, I referenced the fact that this current ramp really stretches Intel's current technology, and there are fairly intelligent types in company who question the validity of spending massively to move into new production technology when the markets are no longer growing and the margins are shrinking. I don't blame them for this kind of thinking. Best, Earlie .