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

To: Richard Schemitsch who wrote (11725)	4/20/1998 6:05:00 PM
From: shane forbes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25814

Richard: Re: what happens if another company like National Semiconductor buys MIPS? Likely not a very good thing. Hopefully they will not do that. In any case LSI is a very sizeable MIPS licensee and I hope even if the above bad scenario plays out NSM would still license the chip to LSI. Besides NSM is working on their $300 PC and have bought all the pieces they want I think. Of course someone else may take a liking to MIPS. Just a second... memory flashback... I think LSI has a MIPS license that goes to the year 2003 or thereabouts! So maybe non-issue? They would not renege on a license if bought out would they??? LSI will sue for all their worth. The MIPS core is a big part of LSI's and for that matter NEC's, probably Toshiba's and numerous other big players' portfolios - I think you're proposing a dangerous thing! I would not worry (right now and at least for the next 2-3 years). Shane.

To: Richard Schemitsch who wrote (11725)	4/20/1998 7:38:00 PM
From: shane forbes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25814

Richard: Here's the contract agreement - safe till 2004 (not 2003 as I had indicated in post 11726): lsilogic.com Shane.

To: Richard Schemitsch who wrote (11725)	4/21/1998 5:10:00 AM
From: Javelyn Bjoli	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25814

The MIPS franchise loses its value if it gets bought by anyone who tries to compete against its licensees. The licensees will feel that company has an unfair "inside track" on new core designs and will eventually have to move away to a more impartial core vendor. That rules out most present MIPS licensees as potential suitors. Besides, aren't most of the licensees in Asian countries with currency problems that would get in the way of making a large purchase? The only company I can think of that makes sense as a purchaser of MIPS is Cadence (CDN). As they grow into the burgeoning business of stitching together intellectual property from multiple sources, it will make sense for them to have greater control over key core designs themselves. Something like 13 of the top IC designers from the StrongARM team left to go work for Cadence (on contract) when Intel bought Digital. As they gather good designers, good designs will follow.