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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (156914)	5/10/2000 1:02:00 PM
From: John Koligman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Here's another benefit of sole sourcing your motherboards and chips from one manufacturer... This news initially came out about a month ago, only at that time Intel was trying to blame the memory manufacturers for the problem... John Intel to replace defective PC motherboards By Melanie Austria Farmer Staff Writer, CNET News.com May 10, 2000, 8:45 a.m. PT update Intel today said it plans to replace PC motherboards due to a defective component that can corrupt data or cause computers to unexpectedly reboot. The company said it is working with customers to replace motherboards that have a defective component called a memory translator hub, which translates signals from PC memory chips to Intel's 820 chipset. "Motherboard" is an industry term for a computer's main circuit board, and chipsets serve as a communications conduit for PCs. Arcane as it sounds, the memory translator hub has emerged as a fairly important piece of silicon. The chip allows computer makers to use Intel's 820 chipset, the company's latest and fastest, as a way to get around adopting the more expensive, and often difficult-to-find, Rambus memory. Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research, has estimated that 75 percent of the Pentium III systems that contain the 820 chipset also contain the hub. By contrast, Intel estimates that the majority of 820 systems contain Rambus memory. The problem potentially will exist in a number of Pentium III systems bought since November. For Intel, the fix will likely be expensive. The company said it will fix computers bought from it directly by replacing standard computer memory inside these systems with Rambus RDRAM. Currently, the cost of Rambus RDRAM is about two to three times that of standard memory, according to a number of estimates. Intel will also replace the motherboards. "We know that the number of PCs with this particular configuration is less than 1 million," said Intel spokesman Michael Sullivan. "It's not the bulk by any means, but we will replace boards if the user would like to have a replacement instead." Intel, which is setting aside funds related to the cost of the motherboard replacements, said the final amount of the cost reserve could be "material" to the company's financials. System noise problems were found with the hub that can cause some computer systems to reset or reboot as well as potentially cause data corruption, the company said in a statement. Intel said systems shipped before that time are unaffected by the noise issue. The company said customers can contact PC makers for more information or download a utility from Intel's Web site that identifies PCs containing the defective component. In February, Intel discovered a bug that affected some server and workstation computers using the recently released Intel 840 and 820 chipsets. Though the glitch occurred somewhat rarely, three motherboard designs were canceled in response.

To: calgal who wrote (156914)	5/10/2000 4:50:00 PM
From: Sam Bose	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Dell to surpass expectations, as expected, by IDEAGlobal May 10 2000 1:20PM ET Computer-maker Dell is slated to release its fiscal first-quarter earnings on Thursday after the bell which. Given the strength of the company, Wall Street's looking for an upside surprise. Look for Dell shares to rise in the coming weeks. IDEAglobal.com sees Dell climbing up to $55 in the next one to two weeks. Wednesday at 14:15 GMT shares are down $1-3/16 to $45-5/8. Analysts expect Dell {DELL} to post profits of 16 cents a share, which is what the company posted last year during its first-quarter. Dell has met or surpassed analysts' expectations four out the last four quarters, so a surprise on the upside is a strong possibility. Analysts expect Dell to report revenue between $7.1bn and $7.2bn for the quarter. For the year ending January 2000, Dell saw its revenues grow 38% to $25.3bn from the prior year while earnings increased 14% to $1.67bn in the same time frame. Investors are not so much concerned that rising interest rates will affect demand for computers. That's not to say the Fed's attempts to cool the overheating economy won't affect Dell, its shares are just as not as sensitive as some other industries. Not only should computer sales across the board persevere, but Dell seems to be in a stronger position than its competitors. Dell's fiscal 2000 earnings are expected to grow 33.2% a year for the next five years, while rival computer-maker Compaq's {CPQ} are expected to increase 20% and computer-manufacturer Gateway's {GTW} are expected to rise by 24%. Dell's operating margins are also stronger than its competitors. For every computer it sells, it makes 9% of the selling price. Compaq only makes 2.4% off every computer it sells and Gateway makes 6.9%. So it's within reason that Dell's shares are more expensive than its rivals -- while investors think Dell is swell, the numbers support that claim. Dell trades at 55 times its expected fiscal 2000 earnings, Compaq trades at 25 times its expected year 2000 earnings and Gateway trades at 29 times its expected year 2000 earnings. Investment-firm Robertson Stephens reiterated Dell a strong buy Monday and Investment-house Salomon Smith Barney rates Dell a buy with a 12-month price target of $71 on the shares according to its earnings preview released today. In addition to its imminent earnings announcement, Dell is sporting a low-priced computer that has high priced Rambus-style memory. Rambus technology allows for more efficient computer memory processing. Dell expects Rambus-style memory to move into the mainstream computer market sooner though analysts believe it's likely to be later.