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

To: Monica Detwiler who wrote (156944)	1/26/2002 12:50:20 AM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Nvidia samples chip set, seeks Intel license The rumor mill was churning at this week's Platform Conference in San Jose. One of the hottest rumors at the conference was that Nvidia Corp. is reportedly sampling a Pentium 4-compliant PC chip set, but the company has yet to obtain a license from Intel Corp. Details of Nvidia's Pentium 4-compliant chip set are sketchy, but the company's latest nForce line of core-logic products is reportedly being shown to PC motherboard makers in Taiwan, according to sources familiar with the product at the conference. Sources believe that Nvidia is talking to Intel about obtaining a license for its new chip set. But it's unclear if Intel will grant a license to the nearby Santa Clara, Calif.-based company. A spokesman for Nvidia denied the existence of a Pentium 4-compliant chip set. "We don't have one," the spokesman for Nvidia said. "We don't have a [Pentium 4] license from Intel." But if Nvidia should decide to market the chip set without the proper blessing from Intel, Nvidia could be in for a major legal battle with Intel. For example, Taiwan's Via Technologies Inc. last year rolled out a Pentium 4-compliant chip set without obtaining a license from Intel. As expected, Intel filed suit against Via last year. In response, Via filed a counter suit against Intel.--M.L. --- 0.13-micron troubles in foundryland? Are silicon foundry providers in Asia having problems making the transition from 0.18- to 0.13-micron technology? Leading silicon foundry providers announced their 0.13-micron process capabilities last year, but some believe that vendors are having a tough time ramping up this technology for various reasons, according to sources. The problems have delayed the introduction of new chip products from certain companies, according to sources. It's still too soon to tell if the foundries are having trouble, said Daniel Heyler, who tracks the semiconductor industry for Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. in Hong Kong. "The foundries are still in the early stages of ramping up their 0.13-micron technologies," Helyer said. Others agreed. "The foundries had to work out the bugs [in their 0.13-micron technologies] in 2001," said Joanne Itow, who tracks the market for Semico Research Corp. in Phoenix. "I think the foundries will be up and running with good [0.13-micron] yields in 2002," she said.--M.L. --- Motorola outsources just 12-15% of its wafers It isn't easy for a big chip maker to embrace third-party foundry services. Just look at the effort at Motorola Inc., which has been trying to move about half of its semiconductor products to third-party manufacturers or outside joint ventures since 1998. The company stepped up those efforts several months ago under an "asset light" strategy. In 1998, top Motorola chip executives said they were serious about moving 50% of the company's products to outside plants. At the time 7% of Motorola's $8 billion chip sales were produced outside its own plants. Today, however, just 12-to-15% of Motorola's chip products are fabricated by third-party wafer fabs, said Fred Shlapak, president of the company's Semiconductor Products Sector in Austin, Tex. While fielding questions from financial analysts this week, Shlapak also estimated that 30-to-35% of Motorola's semiconductor products were now assembled subcontract packaging and test houses. And now, Motorola is tightening its belt, cutting capital spending on chip its own plants by 67% to just $200 million this year from $610 million in 2001--which was substantially below $2.4 billion in 2000 (see Jan. 23 story). When the current round of cuts are finished, the Motorola's chip business will have just eight wafer fabs and two major backend assembly plants by 2003. Shlapak also promised that the chip business would have a small operating profit by the fourth quarter of 2002 and ready for much better times in 2003. --J.R.L. --- Micron mum on Xbox memory This could turn out to be an episode of the X-Files television show. Last year, Micron Technology Inc. announced that it would supply double-data rate SDRAMs for Microsoft Inc.'s Xbox series of game machines. But sources believe that Micron is having trouble developing and shipping DDR memories to Microsoft for undisclosed reasons. Micron is reportedly developing 4-by-32-megabit DDR SDRAMs for the Xbox. The rumors began to surface at this week's Platform Conference, when rival Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced that it was also supplying DDR SDRAMs for the Xbox as well (see Jan. 21 story). Asked to comment on the matter, a spokeswoman for Micron mechanically responded: "Micron has a supplier agreement with Microsoft for the Xbox. We cannot publicly disclose specific details or quantities shipped."--M.L.