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Technology Stocks : The New QLogic (ANCR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chris O'Connor who wrote (13993)	1/29/1998 11:56:00 PM
From: Joe13579	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29386

>>Based on your experience would you choose the switch of your friends company or choose the switch that is superior pricewise and performancewise. You forgot the third option - develop your own switch that's at least as good as the ones out there and take their customers out from underneath them. I believe SUN was hinting at this option in their press release (ie switches to be released later in the year). Rob

To: Chris O'Connor who wrote (13993)	1/30/1998 1:34:00 AM
From: Kerry Lee	Respond to of 29386

"Chris", you wrote: <<Many on this board seem to think that SUN will go with their former buddies. I feel this thinking is absolutely foolish. Why would SUN let their competitors use the switch that is superior pricewise and performancewise to help out of few ex-buddies? >> Regarding "FOOLISH", I thought it would be appropriate to not only ratchet down SI /MF expectations ( based on history with this company) but to also tell Janski, Joe6Pack , Ed and Fred, et al, exactly what they wanted to hear, ie, Q4 numbers will be lousy ( only $1 million revenues) , Brocade will win EVERYTHING , cash will run out, class action lawsuit looming, bankruptcy, de-listing, yada, yada , yada....I wouldn't want the brain surgeons to get the wrong impression that all Ancor "Cultists" have their heads still stuck in the sand . 1. All things being equal, IF the price/performance is equivalent, then location and relationships can and will drive the final decision ( Advantage: Brocade in Silicon Valley).On the other hand, IF one product is SIGNIFICANTLY superior in performance and cost , then odds are that an OEM will choose the better design/product as well as factoring in considerations such as quality control, reliability, after sales service/tech support,etc.. There is no way that the average John Q Public investor can ascertain which company really has the superior product based on press releases and articles, OR for that matter, relying solely upon anonymous posters on Silicon Investor. Obviously, it doesn't hurt to know/talk to Industry insiders or University profs who are familiar with both products and have done their own objective head-to-head tests. Some food for thought..has anyone actually seen a Silkworm interoperating in a Public Loop demo with the other Industry vendors either at Interop or at Comdex??? WHO are the end users currently using the Sequent NUMA-Q/Silkworm system and what are they saying about their new system??? Just curious... 2. Re: low-priced tech stocks, it might surprise you to learn that I have sufficient weighting in large caps such as MSFT, INTC, CSCO, GE, DIS, PG, JNJ, KO, etc...However, these are long term holdings bought years ago which I refrain from trading and I ignore the boards for these stocks most of the time because I have nothing to contribute in terms of "info" that the whole world doesn't already know.. Therefore your question about "concentrating" on low price stocks is misguided. There is no correlation between what stocks I own/trade and the folders I post in.Last year, with the exception of ANCR, my capital increased on most of the small publicly traded companies that I owned or traded ( nobody cares but you asked ) . On my private deals, I will be lucky to win 1 out of 3 times and there is zero liquidity if things go bad with a company. When you hit on the right private deal, a 5-20 bagger is the reward. If you're going to cry over losing $25-50,000 on a sour private deal, then you can't afford it anyway. I should ask you the same question . Why do you only post in the Ancor thread? Is it your only investment? PS - At the same price point to the OEM, what switch do you think has the higher gross margin... a 16 port MKII with 4 chips OR a 16 port Silkworm with 11-14 chips? Which switch has the lower latency..a switch with the buffer/memory inside the chip ( MKII ) OR the switch with the memory external to the chips ( Silkworm ) ?

To: Chris O'Connor who wrote (13993)	1/30/1998 7:58:00 AM
From: Kelly Igou	Respond to of 29386

Chris, although I'm not Roy, my take on your question "would you choose the switch of your friends company or choose the switch that is superior pricewise and performancewise..." Sun is a major, publicly owned company marketing complete systems, and (IMHO) it stands to reason they have some assumptions regarding supplied-switch availability from third parties, and that, to some extent, their business plans integrate these assumptions. It would not be smart for Sun to select Ancor as a sole-source provider due to the financial condition of Ancor and the fact that the Mark II has not reached full production. Brocade, however, appears to be in better financial condition, and their product is in full production, and appears to be selling. I believe a smart product manager would select Ancor as the primary provider, but would also line up a commitment from Brocade in order to assure a constant supply of switches in case Ancor went belly-up.

To: Chris O'Connor who wrote (13993)	1/30/1998 5:16:00 PM
From: Roy Sardina	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 29386

Chris Many people have answered the question you asked in me fairly accurately. Adreas and Bill Joy invested in Brocade as Private individuals, both have in fact invested in many other ventures. Sun has publicly stated that they are shipping a Fibre Channel hub for now with a switch for later. I have aloways contended that they are waiting to see what customer demand and use of their current products look like. You imply that Brocade sells an inferior product to Ancor (I beleive that the english proverb that correctly describes that quote is "One should never drink their own bath water") Until there is an independent third party that tests these it is safe to assume both switches work well and have similar performance. as far as the price I am not aware (and neither is anyone else on this thread from what I hear) of OEM pricing from ANCR being made public. When it is I can comment. Pricing can be inferred from End-User pricing and they are probably comparable, they both use GBICs for Physical Layer and that is the dominant cost per port. Now with all that said, Sun would never pick a vendor by any other means than a technical evaluation, period. Now their technical needs could be met by one or multiple parties, but pricing and technology is theor criteria. They almost NEVER second source non commodity products (trust me switches are not yet a commodity) so a single vendor will be chosen. Therefore ANCR will need to demonstrate the Fabric capabilites and Management capabilites of the MK-II to compete, and AL port configurability will also be an issue ,Brocade uses daughter cards (see their website brocadecomm.com and ANCR give you a fixed number of each port type. Hope this insight helps. Roy Sardina