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To: Joe NYC who wrote (10031)	9/23/2000 3:24:54 PM
From: ptanner	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Joe, re: "It seems that the real target of Via's production is China. Intel and AMD provided a great opening for Via by abandoning $50 and under microprocessors." I was kind of hoping Intel would choose to battle Via on this front: AMD mid-high and Via low vs Intel low-mid-high AMD has been more aggressive on Duron pricing than I anticipated so perhaps it plans to pursue this market? Does Via have its own fabs or is relying on foundries for its production? If the foundry is taking a cut of the profits/wafer then AMD/Intel would be in a position to push their process/design technology using the profits from the mid-high end as Intel did to AMD before the Athlon emerged and to the other x86 vendors who failed to make the cut. With Via being the leading supplier of chipsets... this competition could be very nice for consumers but frustrating for investors. It may shift the balance in AMD's "virtual gorilla" team so AMD must take more responsibility for chipsets - a move that many here (including myself) would like to see. I like other suppliers for the volume and low-end but not the present reliance on Via for basically all AMD chipsets. -PT

To: Joe NYC who wrote (10031)	9/23/2000 3:35:13 PM
From: xun	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Joe, <What do you think the impact of Via will be? It seems that the real target of Via's production is China. Intel and AMD provided a great opening for Via by abandoning $50 and under microprocessors.> I posted a message a while back wrt this Via issue. My belief is that Via can only eat some crumbs of CPU market in China at best. I can tell you a story that every Chinese knows well. 20 years ago, when China just opened up and home appliances like color TVs, refregirators, washers and stereos were just becoming part of our lives, there were imports from Japan and Europe that were MUCH more expensive than domestic brands. You know what? Every house was trying to squeeze its last dollar to buy imports because of quality, functionality, reliability and brand recognition. When Chinese are buying a big ticket item for their family, they will try hard to buy the latest and the greatest available, especially when Children are involved. So low end won't sell as well as mid-to-high end in China, especially when the Chinese are makeing more and more money. Via, as a child in a traditional Chinese family business, will never be able to throw billions of dollars trying to be a leader in microprocessor business. They don't have the resources, talents and brand recognition that matter in the China market. The often quoted geographical and language advantages of Tawainese companies are just an illusion. It doesn't matter much to the Chinese consumers when they spend their hard-earned money. panic