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To: P.M.Freedman who wrote (44501)	9/18/2000 12:03:30 AM
From: mr.mark	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 45548

here comes that long-awaited internet appliance.... "September 18, 2000 National Semiconductor Will Ship Long-Awaited 'Sytem-on-a-Chip' By MOLLY WILLIAMS Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL National Semiconductor Corp. Monday is expected to announce it is shipping its long-awaited "system-on-a-chip," a single sliver of silicon that handles functions that required 10 chips two years ago. The chip will start showing up in products from companies including America Online Inc., Compaq Computer Corp. and 3Com Corp. by the end of the year, the company said. Geode, as the new chip is called, is the fruit of more than four years of work from engineers at National Semiconductor and was the brainchild of chairman Brian Halla, who started pulling together the pieces to make a single-chip solution when he joined the company in 1996. National Semiconductor, Santa Clara, Calif., will have formidable competition from Intel Corp., the world's largest chip maker, with its coming Timna chip, as well as closely held upstart Transmeta Corp., whose low-power processors already are being designed into Sony Corp.'s Vaio laptops. Such chips can sharply reduce the size, cost and power consumption of a variety of computing devices. "It's important for National. As soon as someone gets [these products] right, it's going to be huge," said analyst Mark Edelstone of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. The Geode includes circuitry for an Intel-compatible microprocessor -- the core number-crunching element of a computer -- as well as graphics, memory interface, audio, networking and other functions needed for a complete system. It comes in versions for TV set-top boxes, Internet appliances and stripped-down desktop-type machines. With a Geode, for example, manufacturers could design a set-top box that would be able to send e-mail, view Web pages, get program listings and do instant messaging, or an electronic-notepad device that connects to the Internet for e-mail and browsing. The chips will cost between $30 and $50. A mobile Pentium III chip from Intel costs $187. Camillo Martino, director of marketing for National Semiconductor's information-appliance group, said the Geode family of chips have been designed into 120 different products, including set-top boxes for AOL's new AOL TV service, Web access devices from 3Com and Microsoft Corp. By 2004, the market for devices suited for such multifunction chips is expected to rise to $120 billion from about $60 billion today, say analysts at the Envisioneering Group, research firm in Seaford, New York. Mr. Halla joined National Semiconductor in 1996 when the company was reeling from flagging demand and tumbling prices. He subsequently made a bet on the PC processor business when he bought Cyrix Corp. in 1997, but backed out after a bruising price war with Intel. National Semiconductor retained rights to the Cyrix microprocessor technology, which is used in Geode. The company has recovered lately, mostly because of a dramatic upturn in the analog-chip market and the surging demand for cell phones and communications equipment. Last month, National Semiconductor reported fiscal first-quarter net income more than tripled as sales rose 33%. In fiscal 2000, the company reported net income of $620.8 million, compared with a loss of $1.01 billion in fiscal 1999."