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Technology Stocks : Disk Drive Sector Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gus who wrote (2190)	1/12/1998 8:00:00 AM
From: tom pope	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

>>What's going on at Fujitsu?<< Not to beat a dead horse, but the yen is cheaper by over 15% in the past six months. Don't know the relative importance of the yen vs the $ in Fujitsu's cost mix, but it's got to be higher than for its U.S. competitors. Devaluation does work, on a short term basis.

To: Gus who wrote (2190)	1/12/1998 2:37:00 PM
From: Pierre-X	Respond to of 9256

Re: Year of the Tiger Great article Gus! Lots of meaty and relevant discussion in there: "1998 has gotten off to a rainy start, and the first two quarters may continue to see weak prices for DRAMs," said Tsugio Makimoto, executive vice president of Hitachi Ltd.'s electronic devices division. "Things may improve toward the end of the year." I read this to mean "I hope like the dickens things get better toward the end of the year, because otherwise we're so screwed!" <g> If capital budgets are cut, it may affect the transition to 300-mm wafers. Look out AMAT and NVLS investors! Uh oh, what's this PRIA doing in my portfolio? (Besides losing me money!@#$) ...hard-disk-drive media factory in the Philippines ... will help Fujitsu overcome an inability to meet demand for its newest drive products, said a spokesman.* I'd like get some of whatever that spokesman is smoking. <gg> Maybe it'll distract me from ADPT <cry> But now, Taiwan's semiconductor industry is shifting resources from DRAMs to logic, threatening overcapacity in the logic sector as well, and analysts say Korean companies may follow suit. This could bode ill for LSI / ALTR / XLNX / AMD / LSCC on top of the exchange-rate sickness already afflicting them. That huge Taiwanese fab base is like a crowd of in-laws always forcing their way into parties where they're not welcome ... The current price of DRAMs--less than $2 for a 16-Mbit part--has long since passed the $3 production cost and is fast approaching its $1.50 variable cost. A telling bit of news. Microeconomics theory would predict DRAM prices to fall to exactly $1.50, assuming those numbers are correct. I'd sure like to see the analysis that generated those cost numbers. "The DRAM producers are still not far enough along on the learning curve to make the 64-Mbit price competitive. They need to improve their yields, test times as well as burn/test costs." Good news for test companies (TER, CMOS, ASTSF, KLAC) PX

To: Gus who wrote (2190)	1/20/1998 4:38:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9256

Reading this announcement from Hitachi, I see they plan to add capacity also. Up until now, I believe the portable drive market has been the more robust. Here I see Hitachi adding capacity, earlier it was Seagate and I'm sure IBM has been busy as well as NEC. At least WDC seems to have dropped their portable program. It's also interesting to see Hitachi keeping their components vertically integrated. Regards, Mark Hitachi's New Notebook Disk Drive Family Features World's Highest Capacity in Slimline Form Factor Company Sets New Mobile Storage Standard with Five Gigabyte and 4.1 GB Slimline Models, Plus New 3.2 GB Super-Slimline Drive BRISBANE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 20, 1998--Hitachi America, Ltd. today announced a new family of 2.5-in. disk drives for notebook PCs, including a 5.0 Gigabyte (GB) model that is the world's highest capacity slimline disk drive. Two additional drives, a 4.1 GB slimline (12.7 mm z-height) and a 3.2 GB model that is the company's first super-slimline (9.5 mm z-height) drive, strengthen Hitachi's position as one of the top three suppliers of disk drives to notebook computer manufacturers. Hitachi designs and manufactures all key disk drive technologies, such as advanced MR heads, read-channel electronics, and low-noise recording media, enabling the company to achieve a recording density greater than 3 Gbit/sq. in. in the new 5.0 GB, DK227A-50 drive. Common design features in the drives include innovative suspension and reduced mass ''pico'' sliders to assure 500 G non-operating shock in a family of drives delivering the capacity and performance required in the premium notebook market. Supported by shipment of the world's first 3.2 GB slimline drive in the first half of last year, Hitachi's share of the worldwide notebook storage market increased to nearly 10 percent in 1997 (Source: International Data Corp.). With its direct control of component production and world class assembly at facilities in Japan and the Philippines, Hitachi plans to expand manufacturing volume throughout 1998 and continue increasing its worldwide market share. ''Hitachi's strong growth in notebook PC market share will continue, fueled by the introduction of these new high capacity, high performance 2.5-inch disk drives,'' said Gary Galusha, vice president of hard disk drive sales for the Storage Products Group in Hitachi America's Computer Division. ''Increasingly, the leading notebook PC manufacturers are turning to Hitachi for competitive technology, quality, and time to market.'' Common specifications of the DK2x7 drives include average seek times of 12 ms., and 33 MB/s Ultra-DMA data transfer rates. This high performance is achieved with 4,000 rpm disk speed and a 512 kB data buffer. Both of the new slimline products are three disk and six head drives, weighing 140 grams. The super-slimline DK237A-32 is a two disk and four head drive weighing just 99 grams, making it ideal for the emerging category of powerful sub-notebook computers. Availability is as follows. DK237A-32, 3.2 GB, super slimline drive sampling now, volume production scheduled for February, 1998. DK227A-41, 4.1 GB drive now in volume production. DK227A-50, 5.0 GB drive samples available in February, 1998, with volume production in April 1988. The Computer Division of Hitachi America, Ltd. sells high-capacity, high-performance hard disk drives, CD-ROM, and DVD drives through its Storage Products Group. Hitachi America, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., Japan, markets and manufactures a broad range of electronics, computer systems and products, semiconductors, and provides industrial equipment and services throughout the U.S. Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 1996 consolidated sales (ending March 31, 1997) of $68.7 billion. The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contact: Hitachi America, Ltd. Werner Glinka, 650/244-7630 werner.glinka@hal.hitachi.com or FS Communications Matthew Schmidt, 650/691-1488 matt@fscomm.com