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To: Stoctrash who wrote (29306)	2/10/1998 1:27:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

Consumers resist bargain bait with economy in flux 02/10/98 South China Morning Post Page 4 (Copyright 1998) Oversupply is causing retailers to cut prices, but mainland Chinese are spending more cautiously as fears for their jobs grow. MARK O'NEILL reports from Beijing. Buy an LG 29-inch television and get a red packet containing 500 yuan (about HK$464). Buy a Philips video compact disc player ( VCD ) and get a lottery ticket to win one of 100 mobile telephones, 500 radios and 500 electric shavers. It is the fourth floor of the Blue Island department store, where dozens of domestic and foreign brands of televisions and VCDs compete desperately for business. It is the same story in other department stores in the capital - falling prices and give-aways but with limited results. "There are just too many televisions and VCDs," one blue-uniformed salesman said. "TVs are 20 per cent cheaper than a year ago. There are people buying, but not like before. Many people are out of work and have nothing to spend." Retail consumption growth, one of the engines of the economy, is falling. In 1997 consumption was 2.72 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.6 per cent over 1996 which was the lowest level of growth since 1990, when the economy was in a government-induced slowdown. This slowdown reflects a profound change in the spending habits of the 359 million urban Chinese. For the first 40 years of Communist rule, their budgets were simple. The state work-unit provided a salary, cheap housing, pension and medical benefits and free education for children. Spending was on food, mostly, and consumer goods. Now the equation has changed. Housing, education, health care and pensions are being monetised - or Thatcherised as some economists call it - and the individual has to pay for them instead of the state. The cost of these services is rising faster than increases in personal income. Wang Minqiang, a salesman, said: "We hesitate to spend because we are fearful of the future. "Many people have been laid off. Will I be laid off too? I pay 50 yuan into an insurance company that will pay me 500 yuan a month when I retire. Medical bills are another worry. The costs have increased sharply and companies pay only a portion. My wife's factory, a state firm making car engines, is doing badly and is behind in wage payments to its staff," he said. "It has no money for medical bills, let alone costly surgery. Will it be able to pay her pension when she retires? She is likely to be laid off this year." Of these worries over the future, fear of unemployment looms largest. In a survey of 5,000 residents from 10 cities published last weekend, 92.7 per cent said unemployment ranked first among their anxieties, followed by 92.1 per cent who were concerned by losses incurred at state firms, and 66.5 per cent who said the social welfare system was insufficient. Concern about unemployment was higher among those worst hit by it - women and those earning less than 400 yuan a month as well as residents of Beijing, Shenyang and Wuhan, who were more anxious than people in Shanghai, Xiamen and Guangzhou where jobless rates are lower. They have good reason to worry. Official figures show that 16.3 million urban Chinese are already unemployed or have been laid-off, and 30 million or one-third of state workers are redundant and should be dismissed. Many believe these figures are too low. Workers laid off by the state sector are likely to find jobs in private, collective or foreign-owned companies or in the service sector - which does not provide them with housing, pension and other benefits. People are therefore spending less on immediate needs and putting aside more for future ones. Beijing residents last year, for example, spent 8.99 billion yuan on insurance, 90.5 per cent more than in 1996, with 70.7 per cent going on life insurance, including pensions. All this is bad news for manufacturers, already suffering from a surplus of capacity, especially in consumer goods. Take colour televisions and VCDs, which should be among the hottest consumer items. Fierce competition last year drove down prices of colour TVs by between 20 and 47 per cent. On January 1, domestic manufacturer Haixin offered 600 21-inch sets at a department store in Chengdu for 998 yuan, the first time the price for such sets has fallen below 1,000 yuan. Although the government three years ago forbade the import of new TV production lines, the utilisation rate of existing lines is below 50 per cent. The situation with VCDs is even worse. In 1995, output was 220,000, rising to 2.24 million in 1996 and 15 million last year. Capacity this year will reach 50 million. But demand this year will be only 12 million, up from 10 million last year. The price of the cheapest VCD fell from 2,700 yuan in 1995 to 1,500 yuan in 1996 and less than 1,000 yuan in the second half of last year. The weakening of consumer demand is bad news for the government, which is counting on it to help achieve its target of at least 8 per cent economic growth. The official press talks of cars and housing as priorities for personal spending this year. But, while sales will rise from 1997 levels, they remain out of reach of the majority of urban citizens, unless they can borrow, at cheap rates.

To: Stoctrash who wrote (29306)	2/10/1998 4:02:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

Diamond vs. Creative.................. See the table at the end. I wonder how much of the CPU this board uses, and I wonder about the quality of the video. We'll have to wait for the reviews and the reports from the field. Also, I'll wager that a general-purpose MPACT-2 processor costs more to produce than ZiVA......... Diamond Multimedia Sets a New Pace for PC DVD With Its New Full-featured Diamond DVD Kit SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 1998-- Diamond DVD/2D/3D Adapter, Next-Generation DVD-ROM Drive and Software Bundle for Only $299 Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:DIMD), a leader in interactive multimedia acceleration, today set a new pace for DVD on the PC with the announcement of its full-featured Diamond DVD(TM) Kit, Model MC20. This integrated kit features an advanced Diamond DVD, 2D and 3D adapter, a state-of-the-art next generation 2X DVD-ROM drive and an exciting bundle of interactive DVD titles. Priced at only $299.95 in the U.S., the Diamond DVD Kit, Model MC20 is expected to hit North American retail shelves in the second quarter of this year. "The Diamond DVD Kit, Model MC20 is an integrated solution that offers advanced multimedia functionality in a single package," said David Watkins, vice president and general manager of the multimedia division at Diamond Multimedia. "In comparison, most other DVD solutions are more expensive and have fewer features. Consumers will be able to purchase our Diamond DVD Kit and enjoy the latest multimedia PC features, including high-performance graphics acceleration as well as home theater-quality DVD video and Dolby Digital audio, for a truly groundbreaking price." For example, in comparison to Creative Labs' PC-DVD Encore Kit, the Diamond DVD Kit, Model MC20 carries an $80 lower estimated retail price and offers 2D and 3D graphics acceleration in addition to DVD. Creative's solution only includes DVD functionality (see attached chart). Best-of-Class DVD Performance plus 2D/3D Graphics The Diamond DVD Kit, Model MC20 features an integrated DVD and 2D/3D graphics "single-chip" solution for high-performance multimedia PCs. Powered by Chromatic Research's Mpact 2 3DVD media processor, Diamond's PCI-based accelerator provides outstanding 3D gameplay, high-quality 2D graphics and hardware acceleration for the enhanced playback of interactive DVD content. This accelerator features an advanced 3D rendering engine and a dedicated texture cache to enable a faster and more realistic gaming experience for Microsoft Direct3D and DOS-based games. Additional 3D features include trilinear filtering, specular highlighting, full transparency and alpha blending support. The Diamond accelerator also features high-powered processing for 2D applications including presentations, spreadsheets, desktop publishing and more. Populated with 4MB of RDRAM, it is capable of displaying resolutions up to 1600X1200 and flicker-free refresh rates of up to 200Hz. "Given Diamond Multimedia's success in providing advanced multimedia subsystem solutions, we are pleased that Diamond has chosen the Mpact 2 media processor as part of their overall DVD offering," said John Monti, vice president of marketing at Chromatic Research. "Diamond has tremendous manufacturing, marketing, sales and support resources that will take Mpact 2 media processor technology into all areas of the PC business." Establishing a new benchmark for PC DVD performance, the Diamond DVD Kit, Model MC20 provides home theater-quality video playback of the latest DVD content. In comparison to specialized graphics chips that provide limited DVD capabilities such as motion compensation, the Chromatic Mpact 3DVD processor is a comprehensive DVD video and audio solution that offers full-screen, 30 frames-per-second MPEG-2 video decoding, MPEG-1 decoding, full six-channel Dolby Digital surround sound audio decoding and more. Second-Generation DVD-ROM Technology The new Diamond DVD Kit, Model MC20 features a second-generation DVD-ROM drive, providing high-quality digital video playback for the latest DVD games, movies and music. The drives deliver improved performance with up to a 2X read rate and an average random access speed of 160ms for DVD-ROM media and provide up to a 24X read rate and an average random access speed of 105ms for CD-ROM media. The second-generation drives also provide read compatibility with CD-R and CD-RW media. Additionally, they are designed to accommodate future DVD formats by reading data recorded by write-once DVD-ROM drives. Exciting Bundle of DVD Titles Providing immediate out-of-the box enjoyment, the Diamond DVD Kit, Model MC20 will include a variety of interactive DVD titles. Specific details about the software bundle will be announced at a later date. System Requirements The Diamond DVD Kit, Model MC20 requires a minimum system configuration of a Pentium-166 MHz processor or compatible CPU with 16MB of memory. Diamond Multimedia Diamond Multimedia is driving the interactive multimedia market by providing advanced solutions for home, business and professional desktop computer users, enabling them to create, access and experience compelling new media content from their desktops and through the Internet. Diamond accelerates multimedia from the Internet to the hard drive with products that include the Stealth and Viper(R) series of media accelerators, the Monster series of entertainment 3D and sound accelerators, the Fire series of professional 3D and SCSI accelerators, and the Supra(R) series of modems. Diamond also markets DVD and video phone kits. Diamond's common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol DIMD, and its web site address is www.diamondmm.com. How to Contact Diamond Multimedia There are many ways to reach Diamond for sales support, technical assistance, driver updates and general information: Internet Web Site: diamondmm.com Diamond Multimedia's Headquarters and Multimedia Division: 408/325-7000; Fax: 408/325-7070 Communications Division (Supra brand modems) Main Phone Number: 360/604-1400; Fax: 360/604-1401 European Division (Germany): +49-8151-266-0; (UK): +44-1189-444400; (France) +33-1-47561157 Korean Office (Seoul): +82-2-551-2700; Fax: +82-2-551-2710 Japanese Office (Tokyo): +81-3-5695-8401; Fax: +81-3-5695-8403 ASEAN Office (Singapore): +65-353-9511; Fax: +65-353-9510 Hong Kong Office: +852-2375-9023; Fax: +852-2375-9021 Australian Office (Sydney): +61-2-9460-2355; Fax: +61-2-9460-2360 Product Support (Voice), United States: 541/967-2450; Europe (Germany) +49-8151-266-330; Europe (UK) +44-1189-444444; TDD/TTY Support 541/967-2451 Product Support (Fax), United States: 541/967-2401; Europe (Germany) +49-8151-266-331; Europe (UK): +44-1189-444445; (France) +33-1-47561139 Pre-sales Information: 1-800/468-5846 Investor Relations: 408/325-7476; 1-888/474-3463 (U.S. and Canada) 24-Hour Fax-On-Demand Service: 1-800/380-0030 FTP site: ftp.diamondmm.com BBS: 541/967-2444 (to 33.6 Kbps) or 408/383-0551 (ISDN); Europe (Germany) BBS at +49-8151-266333 (to 28.8 Kbps) or +49-8151-266334 (ISDN); Europe (UK) at +44-1189-444415 (to 33.6 Kbps) NOTE TO EDITORS: Monster 3D and Supra are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. Diamond DVD is a trademark of Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. Viper* is a Registered Trademark of Directed Electronics, Inc., Used under License. All other trademarks referenced are the service mark, trademark or registered trademark of their respective manufacturers. This announcement relates to products whose introduction are in the United States of America. The product name contents, prices and availability may differ elsewhere in the world according to local factors and requirements. Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, such as statements relating to the Company's ability to successfully exploit technological and market developments, the timing and success of new product introductions by the Company and its competitors, and the Company's ability to invest in new technologies and to enhance its existing systems are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including the impact of competitive products and pricing and alternative technological advances, the timely and successful development and market acceptance of new products and upgrades to existing products, and other risks as detailed from time to time in Diamond Multimedia's SEC filings, including its most recent Forms 10-K and 10-Q. Diamond DVD Kit, MC20 Creative Labs PC-DVD Encore DXR2 2X DVD-ROM drive X X Dolby AC3 audio X X 2D graphics acceleration X 3D graphics acceleration X Estimated retail price (ERP) $299.95 $379.95 CONTACT: Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc. Mary Medeiros, 408/325-7350 maryme@diamondmm.com or Lorraine Comstock, 408/325-7346 lorraine@diamondmm.com URL: diamondmm.com or Faiola Davis Public Relations Andrea Sausedo, 213/933-4959 fdpr1@aol.com