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Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rich1 who wrote (79480)	10/31/2001 12:22:10 PM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 93625

Rambus and Micron Meet in Court Trial date could be set next week, as latest in a line of patent-infringement battles lands before a judge. Douglas F. Gray, IDG News Service Wednesday, October 31, 2001 Rambus on Tuesday faced off against Micron Technology in court, starting the latest chapter in a string of legal battles Rambus has waged over computer memory patents. The two companies faced off in U.S. District Court in Delaware over Rambus allegations that memory manufactured by Boise, Idaho-based Micron infringed on memory design patents held by Rambus. Both sides made presentations in front of Judge Roderick R. McKelvie on Tuesday, but there were no significant decisions made, Micron spokesperson Sean Mahoney says. The judge will call on both parties Monday to discuss discovery, or examination of evidence, and possibly set a date for trial, Mahoney says. Although Micron has asked for a jury trial, it is unclear at this point whether that will be granted, he adds. Rambus has seen its share of ups and downs since Toshiba became the first company to sign a license agreement for use of Rambus technology, after it was faced with a legal challenge last year. Since then, six other chip manufacturers, including Hitachi, NEC, and Samsung Electronics, have agreed to pay royalties to the company. Three other companies, Micron, Infineon Technologies, and South Korea-based Hynix Semiconductor have refused to acknowledge the company's patents and are fighting in court to avoid paying royalties. Heading to Court The first to get a court date in the U.S. was Infineon, which faced off with Rambus in April in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Virginia. That case eventually saw U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne dismiss all 57 counts of copyright infringement brought by Rambus relating to its design patents in manufacturing SDRAM and DDR SDRAM chips. Rambus was dealt another blow in that case, a $3.5 million fine in the form of punitive damages for fraud, which Payne later reduced to $350,000. At that time, Payne ruled that Rambus improperly obtained patents on chips that were being developed by the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council while the company was participating in the group. In its defense, Rambus claimed that the JEDEC's guidelines on participation are confusing and that other members flout the rules. The court later set aside a jury verdict from the trial clearing the memory chip designer of allegations that it set standards relating to a technology used to accelerate memory chips. However, there are still a dozen patents involved in other Rambus cases in the U.S. and Europe, Rambus said in a statement at the time. Rambus plans to appeal the Virginia ruling and also has filed a similar lawsuit against Infineon in Germany. Rambus also holds newly issued patents covering SDRAM and DDR SDRAM that have not yet been entered into any litigation and are not affected by the court's decision, the company said in May after Payne threw out Infineon's claims.

To: Rich1 who wrote (79480)	10/31/2001 12:25:55 PM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Silicon Integrated to Make Chip Backing Rambus, Web site Says By Iain Pocock Taipei, Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Silicon Integrated Systems Co., which makes chipsets for Intel Corp.'s Pentium 4 processor, will make a chip for the biggest semiconductor maker's processor that supports memory produced by Rambus Inc., ZDNet News reported, citing a representative at Silicon Integrated. Silicon Integrated plans to ``support Rambus,'' the Web site said, citing the representative. Rambus, which until September was the sole designer of memory chips used with Intel's Pentium 4, has contacted Silicon Integrated, said Ellie Yin, international marketing manager at Taiwan's second-largest chipset maker. A Silicon Integrated-made chipset supporting Rambus memory would cut the cost of computers using it and serve as a new challenge to Intel and Silicon Integrated rival Via Technologies Inc. by boosting sales of a memory chip that Via doesn't support, analysts said. Intel is the only supplier of a chipset supporting Rambus memory. ``If Silicon Integrated is going to make chipsets for Rambus, that would be really good news for it [Rambus],'' said George Wu, an analyst at Taiyu Securities Corp. ``There would be a chance for it to get into mid-stream personal computers and servers.'' Chipsets control the flow of data between the processor and other parts of a computer. In September, Intel released a chipset supporting cheaper memory chips than the Rambus chips. It also licensed Silicon Integrated and Taiwan-based Acer Laboratories Inc. to make the new chipset, but not Via, whom it sued last month for allegedly infringing on its processor patents. ``Intel's trying to work with Silicon Integrated to fight Via in the chipset market,'' Wu said. ``If they start a new product, it could have a big impact on Via's market share.'' Via said third-quarter profit plunged almost two-thirds to NT$882 million ($25.6 million) as slowing demand and competition from Intel reduced sales and prices. Via's shares have fallen 21 percent since Intel accused it of patent infringement on Sept. 7. Silicon Integrated's shares have risen 28 percent during the same period. (http://www.zdnet.com)

To: Rich1 who wrote (79480)	10/31/2001 9:26:45 PM
From: Don Green	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Many Semiconductor Cos Waiting For Brighter Days By BRIAN MOCKENHAUPT IN SEOUL October 31, 2001 FEER(11/8) THERE IS LIGHT at the end of the tunnel for the region's semiconductor companies, but it is still very, very dim. Hopes of a fourth-quarter turnaround are gone and chip prices continue to drop. So it was with an air of frustration -- some say desperation -- that Japan's big chip makers threatened legal action late last month against Korea's Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor for dumping chips in Japan. NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi and Mitsubishi say the two Korean companies are selling dynamic random-access memory, or DRAM, chips so cheaply that other companies have been forced to drop their own prices and take huge losses. But James Chung, a Samsung spokesman, says it's not Samsung and Hynix's choice to practically give away chips at prices far less than the cost of production. "We are experiencing something we've never experienced before," he says. "Every company has been highly damaged from this price reduction and the plummeting IT sector." Indeed, Hynix posted a third-quarter loss of 1.62 trillion won ($1.25 billion), while Samsung's net profits fell 75% from the same quarter last year to 420 billion won, but it's been a terrible year for all chip makers. DRAM prices have dropped 70% since January -- to just more than $1 for a 128-megabyte chip -- and analysts expect them to fall a further 15%-18% in the fourth quarter. "Across the board, no question, they are all in the same boat in terms of profitability," says a semiconductor analyst with Nomura securities in Seoul. "In the down cycle, the best thing is for the weaker ones to be weeded out." Hynix, now saddled with $6.6 billion in debt, has been hurting for a long time. But several Japanese chip makers have also been hit hard by the technology slump -- Toshiba late last month announced $1 billion in losses for the past six months -- and some are trying to get out of the DRAM business. By threatening legal action against Samsung and Hynix, analysts say, they could be looking for some breathing room. It would be hard to prove the companies have been dumping chips -- most companies have been selling DRAM at well below the cost of production. But there may be more to the argument that Hynix, which accounts for 20% of the global DRAM supply, has been able to keep production high and prices low because it is being propped up by creditors, including government-run banks. Creditors are negotiating with Hynix over new debt restructuring, but some are hesitant to pump more money into a sinking ship. And others note, if Hynix failed, chip prices might increase. Hynix has been selling non-semiconductor assets to raise money and focus on chip making, which has made it more susceptible to fluctuations in DRAM prices. A Hynix official says the immediate focus is on raising cash and making Hynix cost competitive. One step: it is requiring all of its 14,000 employees, including executives, to take one month's unpaid leave between November and March to save money. While Samsung has been hit just as hard by the technology slump, the company is better prepared to deal with a prolonged downturn. Earnings from its telecommunications division kept the company in the black for the third quarter, despite steep semiconductor losses. The company is focusing on higher-end semiconductors -- like double-data-rate RAM, graphics memory and Rambus memory chips that fit United States-based Intel's Pentium 4 processors -- that will decrease its vulnerability to market fluctuations in low-end DRAM chips. Samsung is also trimming back its production of 128-megabyte chips and focusing on 256-megabyte chips, which analysts say will become the industry standard early next year. The company says it plans to mass-produce 512-megabyte chips and will start producing 576-megabyte Rambus chips this month. But there has been belt-tightening as well. Samsung scaled-back capital expenditure for the year by nearly 40%, to about 4.7 trillion won. "The most important strategy," Chung says, "is to survive, not invest." For now, there is little the region's chip makers can do but wait for brighter days. The terrorist attacks in the U.S. dimmed hopes for even the expected small boost in PC sales from Christmas-time buying and last month's release of Microsoft's memory-hungry Windows XP. So chip makers are looking for a recovery in the middle of next year, and hoping it isn't further derailed by terrorism jitters

To: Rich1 who wrote (79480)	11/2/2001 1:37:36 PM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 93625

SiS said to be developing low-cost Rambus chipset By Jack Robertson EBN (11/02/01, 11:55:02 AM EST) Taiwan's Silicon Integrated Systems Inc. (SiS) is preparing to launch a chipset next year to support Rambus Inc.'s 4i four-bank Direct Rambus DRAM, following a decision by Intel Corp. to table a similarly-positioned chipset, code-named Tulloch, according to industry sources. The 4i RDRAM provides similar performance to mainstream 32-bank Rambus DRAM but at a lower cost, because it can be accommodated on a smaller die given that designers need to incorporate less logic ciruitry to control the four memory banks. Neither SiS nor Rambus Inc. would comment on the issue. A spokesman for Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which is ready to start production of the cheaper 4i RDRAM version, would only say, "There will be a chipset available next year to support the four bank Rambus DRAM." The company declined to elaborate. The SiS development is significant, according to sources with knowledge of the company's development plans, given that Intel's decision to put the Tulloch on hold had cast some doubt on the future of the 4i RDRAM. Intel has never publicly acknowledged the Tulloch postponement, saying that it does not comment on unnanounced products. However, sources told EBN that SiS, which is licensed by Intel to make chipsets for the Pentium 4, stepped into the breach with an offer to build a 4i RDRAM chipset. The device would be the first-ever RDRAM-enabled chipset from any core-logic IC supplier other than Intel. Samsung, which is the market's leading RDRAM vendor, has long touted the 4i version as a cheaper RDRAM that could compete headon with double-data-rate SDRAM for the mainstream and value segment of the electronics market. The Samsung spokesman said the 4i chip would be especially attractive for the networking and communications equipment sectors.

To: Rich1 who wrote (79480)	11/2/2001 4:32:17 PM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 93625

Intel takes a liking to Rambus DRAM for network processors By Jack Robertson, EBN Nov 2, 2001 (1:16 PM) URL: ebnews.com DDR is losing ground in the network processor race because it doesn't offer the device bandwidth or lower pin count that networking OEMs need, Gwennap said. Sources said Intel will use the new 4i four-bank RDRAM chip, potentially a much cheaper version than the traditional 32-bank Rambus memory. Duggan declined to comment on the 4i chip At the very time Intel Corp. is readying support for double-data-rate SDRAM for its PC processors, the company has bypassed SDRAM in favor of Direct Rambus DRAM for its next-generation network processor. Though DDR and RDRAM will compete for sockets in Intel's mainstream PC platform, the Rambus architecture is proving particularly suited for the network processor the company plans to unveil in the first half of 2002. Intel considered both DDR and RDRAM for the new network chip, said Bill Duggan, marketing manager for network processors at the Santa Clara, Calif., company. “We selected Rambus because we believe it offers the highest performance with the narrow bandwidth that network processors need,” he said. Intel hasn't given up entirely on DDR, which may be used in select networking applications, Duggan said. Intel uses SDRAM with its existing IXP1200 NPU. Intel's choice gives Direct Rambus a major victory in the highly competitive battle for network processor design wins against Fast Cycle RAM (FCRAM), Reduced Latency DRAM, and DDR. Rambus Inc., Mountain View, Calif., expects to follow up the Intel win with more victories, said Frank Fox, vice president and general manager of the RDRAM standards division. RDRAM can scale up with a just-introduced Yellowstone technology that will offer speeds of up to 6.4Gbits/s a pin when it becomes available in a few years, Fox said. Analyst Linley Gwennap of the Linley Group, Mountain View, described the network processor market as a wide-open horse race. FCRAM has scored wins with Agere, Cisco, and Internet Machines, he said. Rambus has Intel, SwitchCore, and Vitesse in its camp. DDR is losing ground in the network processor race because it doesn't offer the device bandwidth or lower pin count that networking OEMs need, Gwennap said. Sources said Intel will use the new 4i four-bank RDRAM chip, potentially a much cheaper version than the traditional 32-bank Rambus memory. Duggan declined to comment on the 4i chip. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has unveiled a 4i RDRAM and executives said the part can enter production as soon as orders come in.

To: Rich1 who wrote (79480)	11/5/2001 4:34:07 PM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 93625

Xbox estimated at breakeven by 2004 By Reuters November 5, 2001, 9:30 a.m. PT news.cnet.com Microsoft could lose as much as $1 billion on its new Xbox video game console before breaking even in fiscal 2004, an influential Wall Street analyst said Monday. Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker said the console faced competition in the short term but had long-term opportunity. "We believe that Xbox could lose around ($1 billion)...before breaking even in (fiscal 2004) if the product is reasonably successful," she said in a note to clients. The Xbox launches in North America Nov. 15, in Japan in February and in Europe in March. Three days after the Xbox's U.S. launch, Nintendo will launch its new console, the GameCube, in the United States. Those two new consoles will compete with the already established PlayStation 2 from Sony, a unit analysts and industry experts expect to dominate the market this holiday season. Microsoft has said it will spend as much as $500 million on the initial marketing for Xbox, which will retail for $299, the same price as PlayStation 2 and $100 more than the GameCube. Manufacturing costs for the Xbox are believed to be substantially more than the price of the console, with estimates of Microsoft's cost to produce each unit ranging from around $320 to almost $400. Earlier this year, Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget estimated it would cost Microsoft $375 to produce each console, resulting in a loss of up to $2 billion over the next three years. Game companies typically sell hardware at loss for the first few years to spur sales, relying on income from software sales and licensing to subsidize hardware costs. CNET News.com's David Becker contributed to this report.

To: Rich1 who wrote (79480)	11/7/2001 12:02:10 AM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 93625

ANALYSIS: Chip Sector Needs Long-Term Solutions Wednesday, November 7, 2001 TOKYO (Nikkei)--There appears to be no end in sight to the semiconductor slump. With demand declining and no market bottom on the horizon, chipmakers are frantically drawing up new restructuring measures. How did the chip industry, which had been the high-flying leader of the tech sector, get into such a fix? Sales staff at Elpida Memory Inc., a 50-50 joint venture set up by NEC Corp. (6701) and Hitachi Ltd. (6501) in 1999, were astonished by a notice sent from its corporate parents in late October. The notice showed the minimum sales price for each memory chip. Though 256-megabit chips are currently sold for around 3 dollars to large-lot customers, the price indicated was much higher than that. Elpida, which specializes in chip memories, has to compete with Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea, the world's largest memory maker, and other major firms, while being bound hand and foot by price restrictions set by its parents. Total shipment value of DRAM chips is projected to plunge just over 60% in 2001, resulting in a loss of revenue of about 2 trillion yen. The decline is nearly double that in 1996 and 1998, when the market was hit by what is said to be the worst DRAM recession. The latest chip slump is completely different from those in the past. It was caused by cyclical changes in the industry as well as a structural recession resulting from falling worldwide demand for personal computers. Hitachi and NEC have increased the number of jobs they will cut and plants to be consolidated, while Toshiba Corp. (6502) has lowered chip investment three times this year alone. Chipmakers are intensifying their restructuring efforts because they waited too long to reduce their swollen work force. Intel Corp. of the U.S. announced 5,000 job cuts in March this year, although it was still operating in the black. By contrast, it was only in and after July that Japanese chipmakers decided to cut personnel and consolidate plants. "Japanese manufacturers are prevented from making too active a response. They could have sold unprofitable plants while business conditions were still good," said Yoshiharu Izumi, senior analyst at UBS Warburg (Japan) Ltd. The group payroll of the semiconductor division at Hitachi stood at 22,000 at the end of fiscal 1998, down 3,000 from a year earlier as a result of restructuring. However, it rose back to the previous level one year later when the company hired new workers following a recovery in market conditions. In marked contrast, Samsung Electronics is among the most cost-competitive companies in the industry because it pushed forward with job cuts even when the market was booming. Restructuring programs drafted by Japanese firms are merely to reduce costs, not to shift management resources to growth businesses from mature ones. Japanese chipmakers will be left behind in the global competition if they continue to seek short-term solutions by cutting costs, without working out long-term growth strategies. (The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Wednesday morning edition)