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

To: Chuck Bleakney who wrote (4720)	11/10/1997 4:31:00 PM
From: Ken	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9124

The Compaq web site has a discussion of the DLT drives offered with their servers. Though the language implies that they are Compaq drives, it is clear that the DLT drives (as are virtually all components) are purchased from others. The following clip from the web site may clarify the situation: "Compaq engineering pioneered alterations to the original suppliers tape drive to boost the cache from 4MB to 8MB. Our testing confirmed that this provided up to a 77% improvement in performance at minimal increase to drive costs. Now that this testing has been completed, all subsequent designs of the 35/70GB DLT tape drive, including those from our supplier, will now include the 8MB cache. Currently, our competitors are still shipping 4MB version, but look for them to switch to the 8MB version as supply becomes available." They buy the DLT drives from Quantum and modify them. So do they "make" DLT drives? To restate an earlier analogy: does McDonalds "make" hamburgers even though they don't raise the beef? It's a matter of semantics. Anyway, it still represents a sale for Quantum. Compaq is a customer, not a competitor in the DLT market. Ken