Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

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.

Strategies & Market Trends : Technical analysis for shorts & longs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (34774)	10/17/2001 4:23:54 AM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 68092

RFMD Q&A Highlights only, this call is way too long: Q: Op Ex, normal exp 27 mil not including 6 mil of other, so Op Ex down next QÉ A: Yes, 4 to 5 percent decline. Q: Interest income and other. Lost this Q. Next Q? A: About 1 to 1.5 mil per Q. Q: Visibility on rev. How much turn vers backlog? A: Good visibility to low end of range. Depends on turns business. Last Q lots of turns business. Changes quickly. Q: GPRS, how much this Q? A: Mil of dollars. No break out till meanful. Q: One time impact from supply arrangemetn in Q4? A: Bill customer when customer takes part out of their warehouse as opposed to shipped to customer. One time adjustment in Q3. Q: Additional rev to upside. Order they got because they could handle it right away. A: Number of orders not one. Had inventory and low cycle time allowed us to respond. Q: Difference of cross modules vers discreet for cycle time? A: Reduced cycle time across all products. Big reduction in modules. Q: Discrete and modules, looking for higher percent in modules? A: Projected 50 percent of sales modules, but was not in Q. Turns business changed that. Q: 2G and 1X split in KOrea. A: Lot of 1X demand in Korea. US demand for 1X will start in January. Q: GM difference be modules and mimics. A: Difference between two shrink due to better yields. Mimic ASP decline in some products. Some at end of product life cycles. Looking ahead see competitive environment of ASP designs. Looking for 40 percent for blended GM. Q: Percentage of modules across standards? A: No comment. Q: Improved end user demand, comment? A: CDMA 1X bright spot and TDMA as well. Q: How many wins dual sourced? A: Don't know. Think sole source for most wins. Q: New growth areas. Small signal parts? SiGe? A: CDMA a bunch of parts. SiGe major factor in this area. Wholesale adoption of parts there. A few dozen handset with one customers. TDMA side ship to various customers. Seeing traction. Q: Due to Agere relationship? A: Current seeing parts from IBM. No Agere parts yet. Q: Percent of turn business by rev. A: 18 to 20 mil. Q: Small Signal rev? A: 12 percent of sales. Q: Percent SiGe of small signal/ A: 1/2 of amount, probably 4.5 to 4 mil Q: TDMA 41 percent, strong overall, continued growth in Q4. A: Not at the rate this Q. Don't know really. Don't know as part inventory replenish vers continuous business Q: Investment write off? A: $300,000 Q: Hub inventory arrangement, cost? Growth in inventory? A: No comment, under 10 mil though. Q: Q4 with QCOM reference design. How much will be their rev. A: no comment, seeing CMDA growth in general,growing faster than market, saws some sales to customer in Q, direct to customer Q: Comment on MOT business? A: Lot of different areas pagers, industrial radios, handsets, ....CDMA base stations really strong. Q: RF Nitro products? A: Expected in 1 year. Q: RF Nitro acq acretive? A: No, margins good but margins too low to turn a profit. Will invest in RF Nitro in next 12 months. Will increase R&D expenses/ Q: SG&A up? A: Do not expect much of increase. Expenses will be to finish wafer fab and support R+D. Q: Percent business be customer? A: NOK largest then MOT. No Q break out. Q: Any other 10 percent customers? A: Did not say MOT was a 10 percent customer. Q: Bluetooth and 802.11 products. When rev? A: 802.11 shipping now. Bluetooth sample next Q. Rev a few Q's later. Q: Bluetooth falling behind 802.11? A: Different markets. 802.11 longer range and high data rate. Bluetooth short range and cheap. Q: GM improvement? How much from yield vers utilization? A: Don't know. Q: Turns up from 3.3 to 5.3. Sustainable? A: Too early to say effect of hub. Expect above 5 next Q. Q: Cap Ex 10 mil in Q. 70 to 80 next year? A: 70 to 80 this year. Most into Agere relationship (20 mil). May not spend all of 70 to 80 mil. Q: TMDA up from last Q. Most from NOK? Most for re-stocking of TDMA handsets? Sustainable or will it wane in 2002. A: No guidance past Q4. No comment on customers in specific. Seeing more than one customer pushing TDMA again. Surprised. Expected to be on down cycle everywhere. No idea on end demand but interest there. Some phones cancelled in past will be revived. Q: TDMA module development? A: Developing and in high volumes. Not all TDMA mimics that made up rev surprise. Q: AR up 90 percent Q-Q. Due to turns and late orders A: Happy to see DSO of 46 days given order rates. Very linear order rates and good collections. Q: New 10 percent customers next Q? A: No comment. Hard to predict. Q: TDMA modules. More than one customer developing for? A: Yes. Q: Korean rev 5.6 mil to 12 mil this Q. Growth sustainable? A: Don't count of same growth percent. Optimistic above Korea and export business in to US. Japan and other Asia customers also seeing growth. Market growing. Q: ASP overall in Q? A: Decline in ASP's overall 5 percent. Q: Gain share in Power Amp. At what point will you match growth of segment? A: 25 percent market share now. Lot of share to gain yet. Small signal side more room to run. Also want to win more share in handsets with other components besides power amp and small signal. Already receiving customer interest from top tier in new products. Q: RF Nitro charge? A: Still working on it. No exact number yet. 3 cent dilution this year. A few cent next year. Q: RF Nitro shipping prototypes. Who are they shipping to? A: Some base station customers. GaN wins. Still some shipments to universities and military. No major customers. Q: Wireless LAN shipping this Q? A: Production shipments received. Shipping this Q. Q: Application? A: PC card for wireless lines and PC printers. Going into MIC cards not access points. Shipped last Q in small volumes. Q: RF Nitro. Ga Nitride only for wireless. What about VCSEL's, high temperature applications, LED's? A: Focus on high power RF. No limitations though. Q: InGaP technology? A: Current in gain blocks and simple devices. Looking at moduling and design experience. Looking to design for power amps. Q: What type of handset will require InGaP. A: TDMA, GSM, CDMA. High temperature products. Augments existing RFMD program. Q: Dec Q flat to down on GM. Due to new fab or product mix? A: 3 mil in cost of goods sold. 3 margin points. Expect to be flat and maybe up without 2 nd fab costs. Q: Dec Q, based of booking will be able to hit lower end of range. A: yes Q: When does next gen modules ship to increase GM? A: Not black and white. Every time a module is designed cost improves. New modules have better yields than 1 year ago. Q: RF Nitro staff. A: 20 people. Most PHD's. Q: Any competition with CREE. A: No problem expect. IP clean. Different way to do technologies. Different from CREE. Q: Exiting march Q. 96 percents handsets today. Will that be the same. Mix? A: Expect 90 percent rev from handset. Wireless LAN and bluetooth not large impact yet. Bluetooth not in production yet. Wireless still only mil of dollars. Q: Modules 43 percent of rev. How high can it get? A: Peak 65 to 70 percent of rev. Expect continued growth next few Q's. Q: High turn last Q. Continued into Oct. A: On track. Q: Seasonality? Rev flat next Q. Compare with 2000? A: Rev up given environment good. Too early to comment. May not see it if success with small signal and up tick with wireless LAN. Can not compare last year to this year. Lots of inventory last year. Not this year. Q: 3/4 through 2001. Christmas season will be up? Total market of handset sales for the year? A: Good sign from a fair number of customers. Some not seen for a few Q's. Vector is up be not strongly up. Manufacturers conservative. Hard to predict consumer demand. Do not have to have orders placed by now. Some still building up to 2 weeks before Christmas season. Turn around now in days. Q: Booked in march Q yet? A: Yes. Q: Seeing any seasonality in backlog? A: Not significant enough to give trends. New wins indicate march Q will be good. Q: Cycle lead times? A: 8 weeks for module start of finish, one year ago 16 weeks. Q: Competition on module from Hitachi etc ... A: Very competitive. No major changes we can see. Q: Most module Power Amps only? When will you add receivers? A: Depends on customer. Required more risk. 1 year way. Q: When will GPRS will broken out separately. A: GPRS is a GSM derivative. May not break out.Should be up several time in Dec Q. Q: 802.11 radio. Any new partners besides Atmel? A: Working with other channels. No announcements yet. No announcements this Q? Q: Break down of power amp versus passive in module? A: Low active count today. 1 year from now, probably one large chip and one or two passives. Looking to embed more passives on one chip. Q: Switching technology in power amp. Will RFMD build switches? A: Looking at several alternatives. Not seeing any near term demand. Longer term in MEM's field could be demand. Looking for partner to do it. Q: RF Nitro. Making own GaN and InGaP wafers or buying. A: Today using a foundry to make InGap product.s Foundary is buying wafers. In GaN, RF Nitro brings own technology. Q: GM going forward. In past peaked at 50's. Modules at 40 percent GM. Opportunities to get back to 50's or is 40 long term guidance? A: New products should get us back to 48 to 50 percent. Module GM are not higher due to yields. Lower value add. Buying more stuff as opposed to MIMIC's. Will see a lot of purchase stuff go away as we integrate more stuff. Q: Last Q had bookings for 10 percent Q-Q growth. Guidance. A: 100 percent booked for low end of rev range. Q: China, new NOK partnership, fab there. A: Not broken ground yet. Start next week. NOK open fab in Dec. We will open next fall. Q: GM, CDMA and small signal. Better or worst than MIMIC. A: MIMIC GM usually better than modules. Q: Market share for power amps. 30 percent last Q. Now? A: Usually 25 to 30 percent. No market data. Could be up slightly. Q: Visibility for development of GSM and CDMA phones gate activity? A: Have programs for gate system. No one believes it will be a large winner. Some more bullish than others. Do not see it ia mulitple 10's of mil of device sales. No clear to us. Q: Units ASP Q-Q. A: Decline overall 5 percent.