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.

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

To: Ali Chen who wrote (99758)	3/24/2000 10:26:00 AM
From: Scot	Respond to of 1571443

Ali, Did you also see this article on Rambus? Rambus uses stock to spur RDRAM output By Anthony Cataldo, EE Times Mar 21, 2000 (11:14 AM) URL: eetimes.com TOKYO ? As part of its goal to get DRAM makers to boost production of Direct Rambus DRAMs, Rambus Inc. recently announced that it has offered stock warrants to NEC Corp. in thanks for meeting production goals. Yet it's doubtful the incentive program, which has been in place for more than a year, is having much success in bringing the cost and production volume of Rambus DRAMs closer to standard SDRAM. NEC reached certain shipment goals of RDRAMs and Rambus-in-line memory modules (RIMMs) to PC makers to qualified to receive the stock warrants, which enable NEC to purchase 30,000 shares of Rambus for less than the market price, according to Rambus, Issuing stock warrants to its partners is not new for Rambus, which has used warrants as a tool to spur output of Rambus DRAMs. Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest producer of DRAMs, has been participating in the Rambus incentive program since January 1999, and Hyundai is also reportedly involved. Rambus has also offered Intel Corp. stock warrants for meeting goals related to Rambus-enabled chip sets. NEC, for its part, reacted coolly to the Rambus announcement, stating that Rambus had unilaterally decided to make the information public. NEC had always intended to be a leading producer of Direct Rambus DRAMs, an NEC spokesman said. NEC's ability to get its hands on some discounted Rambus stock, which has pushed past $400 a share in recent weeks, won't influence its DRAM production decisions, the spokesman said. "It's a nice pat on the back. That's about it," he said. A Rambus spokeswoman in the United States declined to discuss the company's incentive plan when contacted by EE Times. Revised plans After Intel's Camino chip set was delayed a second time last year, NEC decided to shift the capacity it had allocated to Rambus DRAMs to 64- and 128-Mbit SDRAMs. But since the first Rambus-enabled chip sets were introduced, NEC has decided to put more emphasis on Rambus again, and aims to capture more than 10 percent marketshare of the high-speed parts, the NEC spokesman said. Currently, NEC is producing some 200,000 to 300,000 RDRAMs a month, which is below the 1 million target it had originally expected to be making by this time. By comparison, NEC is making 10 million 64-Mbit SDRAMs and 5 million 128-Mbit SDRAMs per month, according to the spokesman. NEC is now planning its future DRAM production targets and expects to make its decision by the beginning of the next fiscal year, which begins April 1. For its non-standard DRAM product line, NEC will position Rambus as its high-end device and its Virtual Channel DRAM for the low-end. For the mid-range, NEC will offer double-data-rate (DDR) SDRAMs developed by Hitachi when the two companies merge their DRAM operations at the beginning of the fiscal year. Meanwhile, Samsung is making 2 million 128- and 144-Mbit Direct Rambus DRAMs a month, and has no immediate plan to raise its production level. "We will produce 2 million a month throughout the year, and should Rambus DRAM demand rise substantially, we will think about ramping up at that time," said a Samsung spokeswoman from Seoul, South Korea. This uncertainty over the supply of RDRAMs, combined with the extra costs related to manufacturing the devices, have created wide price gaps between RDRAMs and SDRAMs. Japanese module supplier Melco Inc., for example, is advertising a retail price of about $816 for a 128-Mbyte RIMM with 800-MHz RDRAMs, while a PC-133 SDRAM module of the same density is going for around $116.