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

To: shane forbes who wrote (12488)	5/18/1998 11:11:00 AM
From: Moonray	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25814

shane, I know you like the fact that LSI adopted the real estate mantra and when it comes to chips its "Consumer, consumer, consumer". Still, has LSI diversified enough? Here are some markets LSI may have missed and a world look: HEARD ON THE BEAT - Digital Candid Camera Los Angeles Times - Monday, May 18, 1998 Computers have found a place on most desktops. Now they're trying for a place on coffee tables as well. Photojournalist Rick Smolan, creator of the book "A Day in the Life of America" and its offshoots, turned his camera on some of the estimated 15 billion microchips in use around the world to illustrate the degree to which they've become a part of everyday life. But there are also some surprising images, including a toilet showroom in Tokyo where a $3,500 model made by Toto uses microprocessors to control a seat warmer, an automatic lid opener, an air deodorizer, a water spray and a blow-dryer. In Johannesburg, South Africa, pensioners line up to use a fingerprint scanner to confirm their identity before they can receive their checks. In Israel, an employee of the popular Web site Virtual Jerusalem (http://www.virtual.co.il) stuffs e-mailed prayers into cracks of the Western Wall. And in Urbana, Ill., a farmer uses an ultrasound device to measure the meat and fat content of a cow headed for slaughter. latimes.com o~~~ O

To: shane forbes who wrote (12488)	5/18/1998 11:11:00 AM
From: Wolf 2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25814

Shane: This, from the link you provided: a great deal of good news seems to be already priced into the market, given the average P/E of 21 for 1999 earnings based on a very strong rebound in profits. should give us a little comfort since LSI is currently sitting at <21 x trailing earnings, right? Regards, Wolf (who, thanks to Shane, can now type... touch‚ )

To: shane forbes who wrote (12488)	5/18/1998 11:43:00 AM
From: Grand Poobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25814

Shane, At this point the Cu process is more expensive than the established Al process because the technology and supporting infrastructure is in its infancy. In a couple generations there will probably be little difference in cost, although Cu may be a little cheaper because the Cu damascene process is more straightforward (hard to know until it is more widely implemented which problems will be expensive to overcome and which will not). I glossed over some of the technical details in my last post. I wish you could see the graph I have in front of me; it explains it so clearly. What is really going on here and what I left out of my previous explanation is that there are two competing effects going on. Decreasing the size of the transistor decreases the time it takes the transistor to switch. This has been the driving force in the speed improvements of ICs over the last decade. However, the corresponding decrease in the size and spacing of the interconnecting wires increases their resistance and capacitance and slows them down. For a long time interconnect speed had a negligible effect, but now it is becoming important and will dominate over the transistor speed for 0.13-micron and below processes. The combined speed of the transistor switching and the Al interconnect reaches a maximum around the 0.25-micron generation and then actually starts to get WORSE, and worse dramatically at 0.13 micron and below. The combination of the transistor and a Cu interconnect scheme reaches a maximum speed around the 0.13-micron generation but remains fairly constant for a few generations after that. So the comparison numbers between Al and Cu in my last post are for the speed of both the transistor and the interconnect. G.P.