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Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael Wilson who wrote (2420)	11/21/1997 3:11:00 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 93625

Michael, unless you wish to put a name and affiliation to your "colleagues" assessment this doesn't not warrant commentary, I think I'm being generous here....bp

To: Michael Wilson who wrote (2420)	11/21/1997 5:07:00 PM
From: D.J.Smyth	Respond to of 93625

you mean to say friend that all these institutions chose rambus for the savings of a few pins by licensing rambus technology? i think your engineer friend needs to look further as much is missing. will post a response to his comments later. his comments are outdated. 10/27/97 S3 Licenses Direct Rambus Technology for PC Multimedia Chips 10/15/97 Rambus Details Next-Generation, High-Speed Memory Interface 09/30/97 System Memory Infrastructure Leaders Announce Support for Direct Rambus Technology 08/26/97 NEC Multimedia Microcontroller Puts Rambus Technology Directly On-Chip 08/26/97 NEC Electronics Unveils Revolutionary Microcontroller 08/25/97 Siemens Licenses Direct Rambus Technology for DRAMs 07/24/97 Fujitsu Licenses Rambus Technology For Next Generation DRAMs 07/23/97 Micron Electronics Ships Rambus Technology as Standard Feature 07/23/97 Gateway 2000 Ships Rambus Technology as Standard Feature 07/21/97 Texas Instruments Licenses Rambus Technology For DSPs, DRAMs and Communications ASICs 07/21/97 AMCC Announces New, Higher Performance Clock Generator for Rambus Memory Systems 07/16/97 HP's New Enabling Technology For Rambus Devices Offers World's Fastest RDRAM Test Solution 02/24/97 SGS-Thomson Licenses Rambus Technology for Multimedia IC Products 02/03/97 Mosys and Rambus Enter a Joint Development Agreement 01/13/97 Rambus-Compatible IC Sales Top $400 Million 11/18/96 Rambus Technology Creates Lowest-Cost, 2-MByte Frame Buffer 10/01/96 Creative Extends Graphics Blaster Line to Bring 2D/3D Acceleration to the PC 09/24/96 Cirrus Logic Unveils Family of Arcade-Action 3D Solutions For The PC Market 09/23/96 World's First Media Processor Solution Now Shipping (Chromatic) 09/09/96 Hyundai Licenses Rambus Technology 07/29/96 TSMC Foundry Supports Rambus High Speed Interface 07/15/96 Rambus Based IC Component Shipments Reach $100M in First Half of 1996 04/24/96 Creative Introduces New Graphics BlasterT Multimedia Accelerator Cards 04/01/96 Rambus Names Adobe Co-founder/President to Board of Directors 04/01/96 8Mb RDRAM Available from Toshiba 02/12/96 IBM ASIC Family to Include the Rambus High Bandwidth Interface Standard 01/22/96 AMCC Announces its First CMOS Clock Generator 12/11/95 NEC Electronics Inc. Samples 8M RDRAMr 11/14/95 Augat Expands Their Rambus RSocket Product Line 11/13/95 LG Semicon to Provide World's First 8-Megabit Rambus DRAM 10/09/95 Single Chip Provides Complete, State-of-the-Art PC Multimedia Solution (Chromatic) 08/07/95 Silicon Graphics Indego2 Impact Workstations Powered by Toshiba Technology Innovations 06/26/95 Cirrus Logic's New Visual Media Accelerator Changes Price-Performance Paradigm for the PC Industry 05/15/95 Highly Sophisticated Graphics Technology Features 1 Gigabyte/Second Bandwidth in Small Package (NEC) 03/17/95 16Mb Generation Rambus DRAMs Available from Toshiba 01/23/95 Samsung to Provide High Bandwidth 500MHz Rambus DRAMS 01/09/95 First Production-Qualified 0.5 Micron Rambus ASICs Announced by Toshiba 01/09/95 Cirrus Logic Licenses Rambus Technology 01/06/95 Nintendo Ultra 64 "Dream Team" Prepares for 1995 Launch

To: Michael Wilson who wrote (2420)	11/21/1997 5:52:00 PM
From: Fred Puppet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Michael posted an excellent analysis of RMBS's future. I've seen the same scenario play out with many story stocks. Here's how it goes: 1. A small company is the first to enter a new niche market. Gross margins are high because there are no competitors. 2. Analysts and investors observe that the niche is growing, and apply a high P/E to the stock. Implicit in this calculation is the assumption that as the niche develops into a large market, competition does not arrive and drive down margins. 3. The stock soars. People try to justify the valuation based on expected earnings 3 or 4 years into the future. 4. The niche does grow into a large and lucrative market. Huge competitors with deep pockets enter the market. They decide to gain market share quickly by selling at cost. 5. The original small company now must compete on cost, eroding earnings estimates and share price. Michael's friend has postulated an interesting twist on step 4: Instead of a major competitor moving in, all the customers gang up and develop their own product. I believe it.

To: Michael Wilson who wrote (2420)	11/21/1997 11:44:00 PM
From: SisterMaryElephant	Respond to of 93625

Michael, Thanks for sharing the info. Good to read all points of view. <Two new competing DRAM interfaces standards are now emerging from JEDEC (JEDEC is a DRAM industry standards body). Because they are industry standards they are FREE and there are no associated royalties.> This may be irrelevent but, something to think about: It took 17 years for an international standards committee to "offically" agree on the C++ programing language. That has not prevented it from being widely used in the mean time, however. Time to market is critical in many situations. Perhaps this is the case here. Regards. SK

To: Michael Wilson who wrote (2420)	11/22/1997 1:55:00 AM
From: barb loucks	Respond to of 93625

Hi Michael, Thanks for this post, which is interesting to me as an investor in Ramtron. <Currently the fastest DRAM core is built by Ramtron. Ever heard of them?> Unfortunately, RMTR has not had the stellar performance of Rambus; I am hoping and betting that it will, at some point, fulfill its promise. In the meantime, congratulations to those who bought Rambus. It has certainly been a winner for those in at/around the IPO and those who bought it early this week. Barb

To: Michael Wilson who wrote (2420)	11/22/1997 12:02:00 PM
From: Boplicity	Respond to of 93625

We need hard evidence to back up your numbers. Also, correct me if I am wrong, but the SLDRAM - Sync Link DRAM consortium is in disarray. Also, are short or long RMBS? Greg

To: Michael Wilson who wrote (2420)	11/22/1997 3:38:00 PM
From: Shibumi	Respond to of 93625

Thank you for the opinion piece from a hardware developer concerning Rambus. I do have one question regarding the statement: >>I found that the pin >>savings for a SDRAM interface verses a RDRAM interface to >>achieve similar data rates for 64 byte bursts was >>about 20pins. What would be the pin savings (if any) for 4 kilobyte bursts and 38,400 byte bursts? I ask because minimal 4K bursts are common in many operating systems today (given a 4K page size) and 38,400 byte bursts are the cost of bursting to a 640x480 black and white window. Thanks, Mark

To: Michael Wilson who wrote (2420)	11/24/1997 12:14:00 AM
From: Craig Richards	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93625

Michael, Thanks for sharing your colleague's evaluation of Rambus technology. One thing I don't understand about the evaluation. In the beginning he states that the only Rambus advantage is that there are less interface pins required by using Rambus technology. In regards to speed, he says "It means it (Rambus technology) does not make the fundamental DRAM access any faster." Yet he says that Intel is interested in Rambus technology because processing speeds are outstripping memory speeds. This gives the impression that the Rambus technology does in fact increase memory access times. If this is true, why is no mention made of this in the beginning of the review? Also, when talking about competing technologies, he talks about their speed, and doesn't mention the number of pins required by them. Once again, it sounds like speed is the major consideration here. So I'm confused by your colleague's report. Does Rambus technology increase memory access times or not? If it does, what kind of improvement should be expected? If not, why is Intel interested in it? Craig