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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (129276)	12/4/2000 11:20:44 AM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579880

For the Gore Team, a Moment of High Drama nytimes.com While the Bush Team is hoist on their own expert petard, as it were. I wouldn't say this makes any difference just yet, but it's entertaining anyway. The dramatic moment came during testimony by John Ahmann, an expert produced by Gov. George W. Bush's lawyers to vouch for the reliability of the Votomatic, the voting device used in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties. Mr. Ahmann calmly recited his background as the man who helped develop the Votomatic for IBM, along the way making dozens of improvements that earned him 11 patents. With the help of computer graphics, Mr. Ahmann methodically set about knocking down theories advanced by the Gore team to explain how the Votomatic could have produced thousands of paper ballots unreadable to counting machines. Mr. Gore's lawyers have argued, for example, that the Votomatics failed because they were choked by mounds of chads, the tiny pieces of paper that are punched out of the ballots. Nonsense, said Mr. Ahmann, noting that each Votomatic can hold 1.5 million chads and function fine. It was then, however, that Stephen Zack, the Gore lawyer who was preparing to cross-examine Mr. Ahmann, read the document that had been rushed to him: a patent application Mr. Ahmann had submitted two decades ago for an improved version of the Votomatic. The application listed an array of problems with the existing Votomatic, many of them similar to the flaws being argued by the Gore lawyers. Mr. Ahmann's application said the Votomatics regularly experienced malfunctions that could trip up counting machines. "The surface of the punchboard has become so clogged with chips as to prevent a clean punching operation," Mr. Ahmann wrote in his application. "Incompletely punched cards can cause serious errors to occur in data-processing operations utilizing such cards." Confronted with his old application, Mr. Ahmann before long was agreeing that in close elections, a manual recount is not a bad idea. The effect of his testimony was written plain in the strained facial expressions of the Bush legal team and in what Mr. Zack did when Mr. Ahmann left the stand. He shook Mr. Ahmann's hand. Cheers, Dan.

To: tejek who wrote (129276)	12/5/2000 9:35:30 PM
From: richard surckla	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579880

A ptnewell post from THE FOOL... At first reading of SemiFool's clever deduction that RDRAM production was tanking, I was taken aback. After all, the three companies actually producing RDRAM in volume are all reporting a rapid ramp up. For example, Samsung produced 2.75 million units (evidently 128 Mbit equivalents) in October, 2.9 million in November, is currently producing 4 million in December, and has plans for 18 million in December (1). This is just what one would naively expect with the release of the Pentium 4. However it turns out (based on the Jack Robertson article obliquely referred to by SemiFool) that the few hundred thousand units produced by Infineon in the Spring have backed up inventories, causing a price drop in December. Oddly, RDRAM prices have been dropping steadily all year long, as production yields rise. Also the chart of RDRAM prices for the year (2) shows nothing dramatic happening recently, or for that matter in June, when Intel confirmed plans for a SDRAM version of the Pentium 4. (SemiFool incorrectly places that confirmation as quite recent in his time line). But I write not to quibble with SemiFool, but to embrace his wonderfully malleable logic. I like it so much, I've decided to apply it to the Athlon. (Note: using SemiFool's rules, I can ignore any actual production and price data.) Herewith is proof of the demise of the Athlon, using Semi's inspired schemata: 1. AMD announces it is "exploring" the Sledgehammer. 2. Price of the Athlon drops. AMD offers price cuts for the Athlon. 3. AMD releases the Thunderbird, using the Athlon only. 4. But the price of the Athlon continues to drop. 5. "Ebnews 3/4 dram makers surveyed story". Jack Robertson interviewed three DRAM makers which have never made RDRAM (except tiny amounts in February-March). Micron does not even have a clean qualification to make RDRAM. So what would be the equivalent survey for the Athlon? What else? I contacted my brother, Donald, who happens to work for Intel. He reports Intel is experiencing absolutely no demand for Athlons. In fact, (just like Hyundai and Micron with RDRAM), no one has even asked Intel about Athlons. So there we have it. 1/1 CPU makers surveyed see absolutely no demand for Athlons. That is an even higher percentage than Jack got. (He made the mistake of asking Samsung, which reported strong demand). 6. Gateway and MicronPc report a backup in inventory. 7. AMD confirms it will introduce a Sledgehammer someday, but pushes that date back (like Intel with the Brookdale/PC133 P4, originally scheduled for spring, now delayed till late '01). 8. AMD gives away an Athlon with every purchase of an AMD computer. Is the Athlon really wanted? Why does the price of a 1 GHz Athlon keep falling unless demand is tanking? Heartfelt thanks, SemiFool. I was blind, but now can see… (1) Translated from Chinese by oweowepd: swiftsolution.com (2) This is a pro-DDR site. He has been keeping meticulous track of RDRAM prices all year though: members.home.com click on "RDRAM" under "Charts".