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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kai-Uwe who wrote (8499)	11/4/1997 7:57:00 PM
From: Douglas Perkins	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

Thanks Kai, I think compaq will be first to market with Via support chips. Rumors lead me to believe that a mother board design is in progress, only waiting on the first production run of support chips. ESDRAM is already supported by DEC support chips and AMD has made an agreement with DEC for use of the chips with their processors. CPQ has recently purchased a lot of AMD chips. Looks like CPQ can have thier choice of support chips. Doug

To: Kai-Uwe who wrote (8499)	11/4/1997 8:18:00 PM
From: Douglas Perkins	Respond to of 97611

To: barb loucks (4304 ) From: Randy Nuss Tuesday, Nov 4 1997 11:27AM EST Reply #4308 of 4312 Hi Barb. I listened to the conference call. From the Microprocessor Forum: nothing really earthshaking to reveal. They said they were well received and that representatives of large DRAM manufacturers wanted to speak to them. Someone asked if they were talking to Intel and Compaq etc. to try and infiltrate the PC market. They said the people to target were the suppliers (I assume board suppliers like Via). The Ramtron people were revealing little on ESDRAM developments other than saying they expect it to be big next year. The IBM foundry for initial ESDRAMs is moving to another location and this will delay samples for a month (Dec-Jan) they said. My impression is that they are enthusiastic and that a major DRAM partner is imminent. They stressed the fact that ESDRAM is the only memory to meet Intel's PC 100 specification. Regarding the Intel/DEC agreemnet, they said it was too early to tell but they see it as a largely positive move. They believe it gives ESDRAM exposure to Intel and that the deal will result in new life for the Alpha -I've heard quite the opposite from most analysts. Sorry nothing too concrete. I would like to say that the conference call gave me some new confidence in my investment, mainly due to the confidence and enthusiasm expressed by the (traditionally very conservative) Ramtron representatives. ---------- To: Randy Nuss (4308 ) From: Mark Willis Tuesday, Nov 4 1997 1:43PM EST Reply #4309 of 4312 Thanks Randy, I intended to record the conference call and type up a transcript but it seems time ran out. Since I was already working on this, I'll post it anyway. My notes on the conference call are spotty and the memories no longer fresh thus some of the following statements may be out of context or erroneous, however, I think Randy or a few others may be able to fill in the blanks or clarify certain statements. Overall, I thought the conference call was positive. I'll just address what I didn't see in the Lehman Report which should be accessible to all. * The Benton shares have been transferred to a trustee and Ramtron is working with a trustee oversight committee to insure the placement is mutually beneficial to all concerned. * Negotiated an extension of terms with National Electric Benefit Fund, this is good because it is a source for working capital and the loan (the outstanding principal balance and accrued interest as of March 31, 1997 under the $12 million Fund Credit Facility were $2.6 million and $649,000 respectively) was going to mature in June 1988. * The insider selling regarding Moore, Carrigan, and Jones was described as normal considering it was stock awarded as a bonus and there were some income tax considerations. * The insider selling regarding Womak was driven by "health concerns and estate planning" and Stathakis was driven by "estate planning" * There is no change in the patent litigation. Appeals have been filed and the matter is under reconsideration, however, they don't expect a reversal and have penciled in several years of litigation on their calender. * There are two custom RFID programs in the works and within 6 months or so, one of the programs should have product in hand. * There was a question about the Tegal equipment sales, but the answer has eluded me. * There was a $2.7 million EDRAM backlog, a book to bill of .8, and an ASP of approximately $12. There was a decline in EDRAM sales because they are experiencing price pressure from standard 4Mb DRAM which are selling below $2. I think whoever was speaking said something like "our customers would buy all the EDRAM they could get their hands on at $4, but our costs are $8 and there is no way we are going to sell at a loss." The Lehman report expects 4Q97 ASP's to remain above $10 but I suspect that pricing pressures are going to reduce the gross margin a bit. EDRAM is still cheaper than SRAM, but they are experiencing price pressure there also. Furthermore, the industry is moving away from 4Mb to 16Mb densities which is creating volume pressure. * They are working with VIA,VLSI, and other chipset manufacturers to ensure ESDRAM is compatible with Intel based products. * They saw the DEC/INTC deal as positive because it could potentially increase Alpha yields and it would also showcase the ESDRAM/Alpha technology for Intel. They also thought that DEC maintaining their design and product development team would bode well for ESDRAM, although they summed this whole question up by stating " it was too early to assess." I've probably been reading some of the same things as Randy and would have to say I feel that DEC threw the baby out with the bath water. * ESDRAM production was moved from France to Germany to Burlington and this is where they expect to produce the 16Mb ESDRAM from now on. I'd be curious to find out if they have renegotiated their "Transit Foundry Agreement" with Nippon Steel because it was going to terminate by the end of 1997. * EMS's Director of Marketing attended Microprocessor Forum and several requests for meetings were received. * There were a comment on ESDRAM filling the gap at 120 - 125MHz. Beyond that they expect Direct Rambus DRAM (DRDRAM) to foot the bill. * Ramtron would like begin integrating ESDRAM with DDR, SyncLink, and Rambus DRAM * Had 12 ESDRAM design wins in communication links, DSP, and 3D graphics applications * Ramtron had a $1.2 million backlog of both 4K and 16K FRAM and approximately 50% of this backlog is 16K FRAM at an ASP of $1.20. * Expecting delivery of 100,000's of FRAM in January * Expect FRAM revenue to be flat in 4Q97 and increase in 1Q98 * The emphasis for FRAM is "new applications" not necessarily stealing sockets from EPROM, EEPROM, NVRAM and so on. * FRAM's ability to compete with Flash on a price/performance basis is two years out. * FRAM is currently more expensive than EEPROM but price parity is expected to be reached sometime in mid 1998. * Ramtron will receive preferred pricing from Rohm and Ramtron has a call on 39% of Rohm FRAM production(I don't know if that is both 4K and 16K or just 16K). * Ramtron is free to go after the EEPROM market outside of Japan * Rohm emphasis is on custom FRAM parts. I have to reiterate that these are just quick comments derived from some rather hurried notes and are thus subject to error. However, I did my best to be as accurate as possible. good luck