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

To: Jdaasoc who wrote (37714)	3/1/2000 1:07:00 PM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 93625

INTERVIEW: Rambus Inc. Sees Big Growth In RDRAM Chips Wednesday, March 1, 2000 YOKOHAMA, Japan (Dow Jones)--Microchips using Rambus Inc. architecture could account for around 10-15% of total dynamic random access memory chip shipments by year end from around 1-2% currently, and in the 2002-2003 period, forecasts putting its share at around 50% or more of the DRAM market are "very realistic," a Rambus executive said Wednesday. More companies are likely to be ramping up production in the next one to two months, joining the ranks of NEC Corp. (6701), Toshiba Corp. (6502) and Samsung Electronics Co., which are already mass producing the chips, said Gary Harmon, chief financial officer for the U.S. company in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. The others he mentioned were a Hyundai group company and Infineon Technologies AG. Harmon was in Yokohama to attend a Rambus-related forum. He also said one or two other companies might start volume production of Rambus DRAMs, or RDRAMs, by the end of the year. He didn't name the companies, but said Micron Technology Inc. is doing sample shipments of RDRAMs though its parts specifications haven't yet been validated. In the January to March quarter, Harmon predicted industrywide RDRAM shipments could amount to 10 million units and for the year might reach 100 million units. Industry sources said growth of RDRAM shipments could be hurt by their high price compared with mainstay synchronous DRAMs, or SDRAMs, limiting their usage mostly to the high-end PC market and other applications. "In the PC market, price competition is very tough. So I think Rambus DRAMs will only be at the high end of the PC market," said Akira Minamikawa, a director at IDC Japan, a unit of research company International Data Corp. Other applications with growth potential are game machines, set top boxes, communications equipment and digital televisions, he said. Intel Support A Factor Harmon said Rambus is aiming for all segments of the market - from servers and workstations to high-performance desktop PCs, the value-end of PCs and game machines. He said that while RDRAMs may be more expensive than SDRAMs, they have more bandwith, meaning that fewer are needed. Sony Corp. (6758) is able to save $30 to $50 per machine by using the Rambus technology for its PlayStation2 game machine, he said. PlayStation2 goes on sale in Japan Saturday. Over time, Harmon also noted that the price of RDRAMs is likely to come down as typically happens when volume production for a product increases. Volume production of the high performance RDRAM chip was affected last year by delays by Intel Corp. in launching its 820 chip set, which was finally launched in November, he noted. "I have not at any time doubted that Rambus would be successful in the DRAM market because of Intel support," said Steve Myers, senior analyst at Jardine Fleming Securities. Yet analysts also say that Intel's decision to band together with Hyundai, Samsung, NEC, Infineon and Micron in an Advanced DRAM Technology group could bode ill for Rambus. The group is aiming to develop a next-generation memory chip architecture for the PC market by 2003. "We would be interested in participating in that group, but they haven't approached us," said Harmon, adding that unless there was a way for Rambus to collect royalties, it's hard to see how participation would be possible. He also said the development of a high-speed DRAM product by the group might be difficult without infringing Rambus patents. Rambus is now suing Hitachi Ltd. (6501) because of what it claims are patent infringements. Other competition to RDRAM chips is seen coming from double-data rate DRAMs. "Right now the market is still making its mind up about Rambus and while there is demand we will supply it," said Aston Bridgman, a spokesman at NEC. He added that NEC isn't going to stake its future on the Rambus chip, which is why it will continue to produce SDRAMs.