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.

Technology Stocks : Ampex Corporation (AEXCA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: killybegs who wrote (1152)	11/5/1997 3:47:00 PM
From: Bruce Bacon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17679

Excellent Post Jubimer!! <EOM>

To: killybegs who wrote (1152)	11/5/1997 10:23:00 PM
From: Gus	Respond to of 17679

Thanks for the correction, Jubimer. Great post. Here's my own preliminary list of possibilities. Recording and play back heads - AXC's Field-replaceable helical scan heads = Sony is launching a major initiative to prime the distribution channels with its mass storage lineup of helical scan recorders ranging from DAT to 8mm(AIT) to DTF (1/2") to 19mm. Toshiba is also making the rounds to generate support for its 1/2" helical scan recorder. recording media - KM for floppies, tape and disk media. digital image compression - ? digital audio and video processing - 50+ years of audio/video leadership spanning the pure analog days to today's digital era. Again, the overcapacity in the ASICs foundries in Asia makes the fabless model an exceptionally promising route for Ampex to take. channel electronics - Disk drives currently use channel electronics in the 200 Megabit/sec range while Ampex has been developing proprietary electronics in the 240-480 Megabit/sec range for use in the DCRsi and DST/DIS. As a useful point of reference and using 1 byte = 8 bits, the fastest disk drive today is the second generation 10,000 rpm Cheetahs from SEG which have data transfer rates of up to 21 MB/sec (168 Mbit/sec) while Ampex is working on the next generation DST/DIS of 30-40 MB/sec (240-320 Mbit/sec) and DCRsi of 60 MB/sec(480 Mbit/sec). As someone said to me, KM opens the door of opportunity for Ampex in this area. By the way, check out the flurry of press releases from Samsung. biz.yahoo.com biz.yahoo.com biz.yahoo.com During this past year, Samsung SSD established a new R&D Center and U.S. base of operations, and opened its new disk drive manufacturing facility in Kumi, South Korea. Samsung has invested over $1 billion in this industry-leading, fully automated facility. The new 256,000 square foot facility includes Class 10 clean rooms and assures efficient, repeatable production, which is capable of producing 12 million hard disk drives per year when running at full capacity. The company is now shipping 1.5 million drives per quarter with a strategic goal to become a major player by the year 2000. Samsung Electronics provides more than 50% of the components used in Samsung SSD's disk drives, as well as PCB fabrication, test and assemble expertise, VCM design/production, and robotics and control software used for manufacturing SSD disk drives. Because of this natural vertical integration, Samsung SSD is able to minimize costs and compete effectively on price in the open market. Samsung's internal capabilities are augmented by strategic supplier relationships with technology leaders around the globe. These relationships help to assure that Samsung SSD has an ongoing supply of state-of-the-art heads, media and electronic components necessary to manufacture large volumes of drives at a steady rate. Let's see. Samsung has a spanking new disk drive factory currently operating at 50% of capacity (12 million/year). It also has the capability to make 50% of the components required in disk drives and it is outsourcing the following from disk drive supply line: 1) Heads - IBM (primary), RDRT, APM, TDK/SAE, etc 2) Platters - Komag, STMD, HMTT, Akashic(?) 3) Read Channel electronics - VTC, Lucent, TXN/SSI, etc Heads and platters account for up to 40% of the cost of the drives. All in all, it looks like this puppy is priming to compete on price in the desktop. I read somewhere that a disk drive can account for up to 25% of the cost of materials of the average PC. Given the trend towards sub-$1,000 consumer PCs, sub-$1,000 enterprise PCs, and sub-$1,000 notebooks, it looks like the fastest growing segment of the disk drive industry will be the low-end segment of the desktop where KM is a potent competitive advantage. Gus

To: killybegs who wrote (1152)	11/5/1997 11:45:00 PM
From: D.J.Toal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17679

Point well taken -- however is AXC the sure thing in this area? is KM the only player? Why doesn't the street see this sure thing? I have not heard anything of the sorts from Bramson on this -- There is no way to be certain that the future DVD market will hold AXC in the front is there? Is there anybody else fighting for this market? If Ampex were the leader in this area -- why is there no info on this great source of technology and why has the stock fallen and the DVD technology being on the rise? Can we be certain that Ampex will benifit from all the future gains of DVD? D.J.