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To: Judy who wrote (14362)	6/11/1998 10:08:00 AM
From: Andrew Vance	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17305

AV--I do not know who their major customers are, off-hand. However, as the industry standard for PLDs, they might not have a top group of specific customers. PLDs, programmable logic devices proliferate through almost evey facet of our lives. A PLD would be used to run the controls of many comerrcial and industrial electronic units such as air conditioning, heating, and a variety of sensors. What PLDs do, in layman's terms, it to trigger responses to conditions that occur and allow for a subsequent operation to occur. My major experience with PLDs has been in the environmental control arena but I am sure there are numerous uses in the automotive industry as well. PLDs are "programmable" which means they can be tailored to individual needs and limits desired. Most controller units that incorporate PLDs more than likely will be associated with computer systems. Since controls and controllers are a diverse group of units, there is a great deal of customization required or desired. I would imagine that LSCC also provides software to customize their chips along with development tools. I do know that LSCC is basically a Fabless semiconductor company more focused on the design of chips and leaving the "foundry cutthroats" to produce the chips. The price action is very disconcerting since LSCC should be getting some killer deals on the manufacturing side of the equation with all the extra fab capacity out there. Their products and their utilization are diverse enough and spans many different parts of our economy that it worries me that this may be an indicator of a more global economic issue. This is not a memory or PC or DRAM issue. This is more of a global industrial electronic controls issue. This is part of the NASDAQ index if memory serves me correct. There may be something associated with the general NASDAQ malaise. Hopefully THERE IS a major customer issue. This issue is well worth investigating since it has more global implications. If I were to go out into left field for a second, do PLDs have embedded date code issues that need to be remediated for the YR2000. With the number of embedded controllers out in the market and with the gloomy forecast of how many YR2000 issues will be software driven and how many will be embedded chip issues, I would not have expected such a gloomy situation for LSCC. This is also a great topic for investigation. How many PLDs, GALs, etc. are at risk for YR2000 issues or for that matter, does LSCC have any exposure to YR2000 issues built into some of the PLDs it produced over the years via the systems they went into?? They are considered an industry standard and even if they have no specific exposure, more than likely their chips are on the same board as the actual microcontrollers that do have an issue. I do not know if the soultion is a chip swap out or a complete board replacement for these types of YR2000 problems. Sorry I couldn't give you a satisfactory answer but more questions have actually surfaced that must be considered. Andrew