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Technology Stocks : Altera -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rick Farabaugh who wrote (1650)	3/30/1998 6:59:00 PM
From: kas1	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2389

there was a guy on here a while ago (i think his id was 'bilow' or 'billow') who claimed that the networking companies use pld's for test and prototypes, but not for production. he challenged me to find a document that shows they use it for production, and i couldn't come up with anything -- could you? as far as the networking companies, imho the tough times there are largely due to competitive pressures between the companies. but no matter who wins those battles, they will most likely be buying chips from altera. altera has competition of its own (xilinx, lattice, fpga-to-asic technology), but it is still in too specialized a field to have serious margin worries. the cost of a few $200 PLD's is a very minor component of a $50,000 cisco box. there's an economist out at harvard -- i forget his name -- but he writes about something called "the importance of being unimportant," or the ability to do really really well when one is in a specialized niche that is a very minor part of an entire production process. he cites the example of longshoremen at west-coast ports who make salaries well in the six figures, simply because they are unionized (and thus can't be negotiated down), and their pay is a very minor part of the shipping business. i believe altera is in this sort of position in the networking and military electronics business. imho only.