SI
SI
discoversearch

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.
Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Mary Cluney who wrote (111205)9/25/2000 2:01:26 PM
From: Jim McMannis  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 186894
 
Mary,
RE:"For AMD to succeed, they have to do a lot more. You never replace the champ on points. You have to knock him out. So far AMD does not have a knock out punch. Or anything close to one that I can see."

Yeah, but Intel may get disqualified for doping...

Jim



To: Mary Cluney who wrote (111205)9/25/2000 2:24:18 PM
From: AK2004  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 186894
 
Mary
let me answer point by point

re:The reality however, is that AMD balance sheet still looks terrible.

wrong on that one. Yes, amds debt per share is higher than intels but amd's growth rate and earnings are higher than intels and more than making up for it. Yet intel's share price is still higher than amds

re:They still have only a small percentage of the consumer market

you need to wake up on that one as amd is going to ship 28mil chips this year. That is ~1/4 of intels total and about a half of consumer market

re:capacity constrained

you need to wake up on that to as Dresden Fab is at 20% right now and is going to be 100% by the end of '02. Amd is
planning a new fab as well.

re:Sanders is still a very difficult manager to work for

would not argue with that one

re:AMD has to do a lot better than to be a credible me too manufacturer. Look at me. I'm faster. My design is more elegant.

you also need to wake up on that one as well. Intel tried to force market to use Rambus and sure enough everyone including amd is using it :-)) not so..... AMD is setting a separate standards that would be shared by amd/sun/via/transmeta. Intel is setting standards that no one cares about any more. And of course this year most credible chip is p3-1.33GHz - it has some problems at first but you can not find defective 1.33 now anywhere. :-))
Even dell is complaining about intel let alone compaq, sun, ibm and others.

re:But it doesn't mean much in the market place.

do we really have to go through market share again? Intel is loosing the hold on the market at the speed that is not even funny. And yes consumers prefer athlon to pIII now.

re:You never replace the champ on points

I think at this point intel is blind and amd is just waiting in the corner until intel would knock out itself. We have seen few punches by intel that was really painful to intel.

Regards
-Albert



To: Mary Cluney who wrote (111205)9/25/2000 3:58:44 PM
From: pgerassi  Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 186894
 
Dear Mary:

re <<The reality however, is that AMD balance sheet still looks terrible. They have quite a bit of debt to manage. They still have only a small percentage of the consumer market and are capacity constrained to make much inroad. >>

AMD's balance sheet is looking a whole lot better. The only long term debt they have is the German loans to build Dresden and that is at a favorable rate. The convertible debt holders would be stupid not to convert as they would be getting more money by doing so than not. The other debt was bought out early this quarter. Also AMD is having increasing unit output YOY while Intel has been stagnant YOY. Now next quarter, Q4, AMD will have 28% growth QOQ where Intel is saying they may have at best 1 to 2% growth QOQ. So who is capacity constrained? Intel!

<< When was the last time you heard a normal consumer say, Sheez, I've got to get rid of my Intel processor and get me an AMD processor? >>

I have heard many people say that they want to get rid of their P3s and go Athlon. The last ones were my brother Mike, who is a machinist, and my next door neighbor, who is a carpenter. Not what I would call a techie. Mike actually went out a bought a 700 MHz Tbird and uses it to play RPGs and simulations (he got a 21" flat screen Trinitron, the lucky dog).

<< For AMD to succeed, they have to do a lot more. You never replace the champ on points. You have to knock him out. So far AMD does not have a knock out punch. Or anything close to one that I can see. >>

AMD has just delivered three hard blows (Athlon, Tbird, and Duron) to Intel but, like all big brawny boxers, it needs some time for Intel to feel it, longer for it to visibly affect the match, and even more for the boxer to acknowledge that it is a problem. We are still in the visibly affect the game phase as Intel has stumbled a bit and missed a few punches (i820, Rambus, 1.13G P3, Itanium, and more) and is counting on P4 to be a knockdown blow. So far it is a lot of talk but no action. If that haymaker misses, AMD will hit with five more blows to the jaw with Mustang, Palomino, Morgan, DDR, and N-way SMP. Then Intel may acknowledge they are in trouble because they will start to sway. If they do acknowledge and change strategy, they may still keep punching. They could, like with DRAM, forfeit the match. Or they could simply deny troubles and get knocked down with AMD's Sledgehammer (and posibly be relegated to ex-champion in Q4-2002). This may take a round or two (rounds are years and quarters are the minutes in the match taking the boxing metaphor route).

Remember a single blow can cut off oxygen to the brain. It may take a few minutes before the fighter dies (or with just a restriction falls asleep). If Intel's ASPs drop to what AMD gets now say $100, Intel will start eating cash at an astounding rate of 3 to 4 billion dollars a quarter. In a year or two, Intel could go bankrupt although, I suspect there would be massive cost cutting, layoffs, selling of profitable divisions, etc. before it got to close to that point.

Do not count anyone out (they can get a lucky punch (sometimes that is all it takes)).

Pete