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Technology Stocks : Applied Magnetics Corp -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don Earl who wrote (10631)	12/5/1997 4:21:00 PM
From: JDN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12298

Don: What are you saying? If APM turns out to have sufficient product and orders the stock could be a buy of a lifetime at these levels. JDN

To: Don Earl who wrote (10631)	12/5/1997 4:37:00 PM
From: Zakrosian	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12298

Don - I'm the first to admit that I know little of the technical aspects of head production, but I don't understand your reference to a 6 inch MR product that is part of WDC's ramp up. I believe that most observers assume that the 3 inch 2.1 MR product that they are dropping is their portable drive, and that this was one of the two programs for which APM had qualified their MR heads as of the end of the last quarter. WDC also reportedly stated that RDRT's MR heads were looking very good, and that APM had fumbled badly. They also said that APM's 1.7 TFI heads had yield problems and that they were moving away from it as soon as they could. In addition, there are apparently 11 MR head suppliers, so I wouldn't expect APM to benefit in the short term by any supply shortage.

To: Don Earl who wrote (10631)	12/5/1997 5:29:00 PM
From: EyeDrMike	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12298

<<<<Applied Magnetics' two wafer fabrication facilities in Goleta, California are based on 150 mm (approximately six-inch) diameter round substrates. Each six-inch wafer produces approximately 8,400 individual nanosliders (unyielded). Picoslider wafers will produce more than 15,000 individual sliders (unyielded) per wafer.> Note that the 6 inch MR is an APM product that is part of the WDC ramp up while the 3 inch 2.1 MR product that is being dropped belongs to RDRT.>>> no disrepect meant, but you wrong here; the 3" portable drive being discontinued was an APM contract. Mike

To: Don Earl who wrote (10631)	12/5/1997 5:32:00 PM
From: Mark Adams	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12298

I think 3 inch refers to Disk Drive form factor for laptops (which should be either 2.5" or 3.5", no?), whereas the 6inch wafer refers to semi mfg of the heads. APM is saying that they haven't sunk a ton of money in to upgrading from 150mm to 200mm/300mm wafers. The WDC reference to the 3 inch 2.1 MR drives confuses me a bit, but these are likely the same drives they've just suspended to concentrate on Desktop/Enterprise. The press release didn't make clear which Head mfgs would be supplying for which products, but it's ok by me if RDRT was the primary supplier for the canceled line <g>