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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: robert b furman who wrote (6647)	8/6/2003 9:09:06 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

UMC ready to run 90-nm process in 2003 By Peter Clarke Semiconductor Business News 08/06/2003, 8:55 AM ET HSINCHU, Taiwan -- United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) and Infineon Technologies AG said Wednesday (August 6, 2003) that a jointly developed 90-nm manufacturing process would move into volume production later this year. However the announcement fleshed out with details that showed that the nature of the UMC, Infineon development partnership is set to change away from basic process platforms, something that UMC now wishes to pursue alone, according Jackson Hu, the company's recently appointed chief executive officer. The companies said in a joint press release the way had been cleared to production of the 90-nm manufacturing process by the successful delivery of functioning complex circuitry by the development team. The companies also claimed success in their joint engineering efforts towards production using a 130-nm manufacturing process on 300-mm diameter wafers. The companies said high-yield pilot production had been achieved for a system-chip incorporating analog and digital circuitry. The chips are being produced at multiple UMC fabs at yields that equal or surpass those attained by similar products on 200-mm diameter wafers, the companies said. However the announcement added that development co-operation would continue on additional process modules and that the companies no longer wished to share the cost of the UMCi 300-mm wafer fab in Singapore (see August 6 story) "While Infineon was one of the very first companies to demonstrate the economical advantages of high-volume manufacturing of DRAMS on 300-mm wafers, we have now managed to attain a similar milestone for complex SoC ICs with analog and mixed-mode functionality, in close cooperation with our technology and manufacturing partner UMC," said Andreas von Zitzewitz, chief operating officer at Infineon, in a statement. "We intend to continue our partnership programs based on technology developed by UMC and optimized to achieve the goals of our many customers," said Jackson Hu, chief executive officer of UMC, in the same statement.

To: robert b furman who wrote (6647)	8/6/2003 9:16:27 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25522

Morning Bob, For three years we have witnessed how taking on risk not only was not the correct thing to do, but in hindsight was foolish to do. I believe that in a market which values efficiency and productivity, this can only last so long and we are nearing that point IMO. IC Inventories are down to approximately $150Million in the latest Q from $8Billion for one Q in 2001........the spring is compressing and if past cycles are any indication(leaving out the 98-2000) period, we are again on the verge of another upturn. .15mu and below capacity sits at approximately 96% and yet all we hear in the media is the "overcapacity" issue. It is not that simple......the capcity for leading edge IC's is stretched about as far as it can go.....all we need now is economic improvement and we are beginning to see that. COuple this with very low breakeven levels for many companies, and it will not take much for them to see nice profitability. The stars are aligning.....some people just happen to be looking at their feet:-))) Brian