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To: DJBEINO who wrote (51589)	7/11/2000 7:04:56 AM
From: Steve Lee	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 53903

A brief explanation of the NEC headline for those not familiar with the Rambus situation: NEC SUSPENDS DRDRAM MAKING ON POOR DEMAND OUTLOOK - NIHON KEIZAI NEC was making 128Mbit RDRAM chips for the Nintendo 64 game system. The decision to stop manufacturing was due to lack of demand for that product. NEC has stated, as part of this announcement that they are to ramp production of 288Mbit RDRAM chips for the PC market, a market I believe they have not previously supplied RDRAM to. The new RDRAM line(s) will supply demand created by the forthcoming Intel Pentium 4 processor, which will launch in Aug/Sep, using RDRAM exclusively. The full text of this news release is here: NEC Suspends DRDRAM Making On Poor Demand Outlook Monday, July 10, 2000 TOKYO (Nikkei)--NEC Corp. (6701) has halted production of 128-megabit Direct Rambus DRAMs used in personal computers because it believes they cannot compete against cheaper synchronous DRAMs, currently the most widely used chip in the industry. The company will begin producing synchronous DRAMs on lines that until recently had turned out the Direct Rambus high-speed chips. DRDRAMs transmit data at higher speeds than synchronous chips, but they are about twice as expensive. NEC began volume production of the advanced chips late last year, with high hopes to ship 1.5-2.0 million chips per month to PC makers starting in September. NEC ranked as the world's No. 2 producer of DRDRAMs, after Samsung Electronics Co., but Intel Corp.'s introduction in late June of a new chipset compatible with synchronous DRAMs has boosted overall demand for synchronous chips. The NEC production halt is, however, not permanent. The firm will mass-produce 288-megabit DRDRAMs compatible with Intel's Pentium 4 microprocessor,slated to be launched late this year, the sources said. (The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Tuesday morning edition)