To: Alex Dominguez who wrote (31920 ) 4/7/1998 8:46:00 AM From: bob jaremsek Respond to of 50808
Yesterday's lack luster stock performance was probably a result of National Semiconductor's announcement of a single chip system. We own tgal whose daily stock activity usually resembles that of a snail, yet the knee jerk reaction to nsm's news moved the stock from 7 to 5. Cube's multi news releases should have been good for a 10% move.On the brighter side, Zacks has just recently upped cube from a 4 to a 3 which was 5 just a month ago, 1 being the highest (30% annual return). Here's the story: National Semiconductor plans single chip PC SANTA CLARA, Calif, April 6 (Reuters) - National Semiconductor Corp said Monday it will put an entire PC system on a single chip by mid-1999, a move that should dramatically lower the cost of PCs for manufacturers and consumers. The single chip would replace the 12 or more separate chips typically found in a PC today and expand the entry-level market for PCs. National said its PC on a chip is being built around microprocessor cores developed by Cyrix, the processor company it acquired in November. National plans to make the chips at its new wafer fabrication facility in Maine on 0.25-micron process technology that can be further scaled down to 0.18 micron. The plant has a capacity of 30,000 wafers a month, and National said it can also draw on partners for additional capacity, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSM - news; 2330.TW) and International Business Machines Corp (IBM - news). National said responsibility for coordinating the first chip will go to its design center in Herzlia, Israel, which has designed many of the peripheral chips that surround the processor on a typical PC motherboard. National said it is defining versions of the chip for major PC and information appliance makers. Versions are in the works for the desktop market, where it will give consumers smaller, quieter machines, and the notebook market, where the low power drain of the super-integrated chip will extend battery life for portable users, the company said. _____________________________________________________________ .................... Bob