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 : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DiViT who wrote (28684)	1/24/1998 4:14:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

Billy re:Intel & StrongArm here it is.... When Intel Gets Its Hands on StrongARM Feibus, Mike 01/12/98 PC Week Page 074 (COPYRIGHT 1998 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company) Copyright 1998 Information Access Company. All rights reserved. We've all had plenty of time to digest and analyze what the proposed settlement of the Digital- Intel lawsuit means to both parties, as well as to the industry at large. But judging from the calls and E-mail we've received, there's one piece of the proposed agreement that still has lots of you scratching your heads. Specifically, you want to know, What in the Sam Hill is Intel going to do with Digital's StrongARM microprocessor operation? As you may be aware, the pact would send all of Digital's semiconductor operations--everything except marketing and development for the competing Alpha processors, that is--to Intel . A lot of the products that Digital makes should fit well in Intel 's portfolio, such as its Ethernet controllers and PCI bridge chips. StrongARM might, too. The first chips offer a combination of high performance and low power that is unique to the industry. As a result, the chips are widely regarded as among the best solutions for a host of nascent markets, like handheld computers and Web phones. Certainly, StrongARM is better than anything Intel now has to offer anyone interested in making these products. There's a catch, though--and it's a doozy, if you're Intel . The chips are based on ARM, an architecture that Digital licenses along with more than 20 other chip vendors. (For the hay fever-impaired, ARM is short for Advanced RISC Machines, not Allergy Relief Medicine.) Intel is not above licensing innovations from others. Last year, for example, the company joined a host of other semiconductor makers to rally around Rambus. However, Rambus is not a microprocessor architecture. It is an advanced memory scheme that Intel believes will enable PC RAM to keep up with its ever-faster microprocessors. StrongARM , on the other hand, is a processor architecture. And, as everyone knows, Intel has made its money by proliferating and controlling the processor architecture in the PC. So it's pretty hard to imagine Intel as a second source for processors in other markets. Still, if any of these emerging markets where StrongARM plays take off, I think Intel would rather play second fiddle than not play at all. At this point, though, we still don't know which--if any--of these markets will flourish. So, what's Intel to do? If I were Intel , I'd hold onto the StrongARM group, at least until I knew what its prospects were. I wouldn't integrate it into the rest of Intel , as I would with the other PCI chips. I'd set it up as a separate, stand-alone entity, complete with its own sales and support staffs. Then, if the aforementioned markets don't blossom, Intel can either sell the group or snuff it fairly easily. And if sales grow too big to ignore, the company can integrate it. Sound like a plan? Mike Feibus is a principal for Mercury Research, which provides market research and consulting services to component and systems vendors. He can be reached at mike@mercury.org.