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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jerome who wrote (45118)	4/5/2001 1:31:52 PM
From: Lone Star	Respond to of 70976

Spare parts- these tools are very esoteric, and many parts, and hence, spares are custom made and not available from anyone other than the OEM. And, very difficult to reverse engineer. Not impossible but very difficult.

To: Jerome who wrote (45118)	4/5/2001 1:38:12 PM
From: Joseph Beltran	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 70976

A few decades ago when Japan was on the road to becoming a world economic power they would not allow american businesses to sell high tech in Japan unless Japanese companies were given "licenses" to manufacture the equipment. Of course, by obtaining licenses, the Japanese obtained the engineering and before too long the Japanese built a better mouse trap and our technological lead went to hell for a long period of time. We have now reasserted our technology leadership and Japan knows better than to try that tactic again. I hope that we don't make the same mistake with China. It's one thing to give them a piece of the manufacturing action but we should never, ever again make a stupid mistake like we did with Japan. BTW, the more I think about it, the more i believe that it was a bad, bad judgment call on the part of the P-3 pilot to agree to land in Chinese territory. He could have ditched the plane and everyone could have been rescued. He must have known this was going to create an international incident. In any event, I realize this is monday morning quaterbacking and not very fruitful. I hope we get our people back pronto.

To: Jerome who wrote (45118)	4/5/2001 1:38:26 PM
From: Kirk ©	Respond to of 70976

SemiOT: If China buys the latest Equipment for AMAT, MOT, NVLS, INTC & etc, is there any safeguard built into this equipment so that if the Chinese kick out the Americans, that the equipment not be functional? Spare parts and service, including software upgrades, are probably key. Might even be able to send over a virus from our CIA.... My guess is since they steal more software then they develope, they would be VERY susceptible to hacker attack. Could probably reprogram the equipment remotly to make "pretty glass serving dishes" to sell rather than 8" wafers worth $3500 each...