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To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (34916)	6/15/1998 12:11:00 AM
From: DJBEINO	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 53903

NEC's Sasaki Sees Demand In High End DRAM Market TOKYO, JAPAN, 1998 JUN 14 (NB) -- By Martyn Williams, Newsbytes. Despite a collapsing market for low end DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips, Hajime Sasaki, senior executive vice president of NEC Corp. [TOKYO:6701] [NASDAQ:NIPNY] and director of its semiconductor business, said his company is seeing continued demand for high end products. In an interview with Newsbytes, he said NEC is also planning to launch next-generation 128 megabit DRAMs in the second half of this year. With technology pushing forward memory size, chip makers are finding themselves having to cope with increasingly diverse demands of customers, as Sasaki explained, "The DRAM market is becoming more diversified. We are still seeing strong sales of 4 megabit DRAMs, for example." "Regarding 16 megabit DRAMs, this is the most terrible business situation," he said. Over supply in this market has forced prices down to a point where companies can barely break even. In May 1998, production of 16 megabit DRAM chips stood at eight million units per month. The company is currently forecasting a reduction in monthly production to six million units in September and four million units in December. The executive explained, NEC is not planning to stop production of 16 megabit DRAMs during this year, unlike some of its Japanese competitors, because it has customers and long standing commitments for the chips although it is looking to exit the market, "We are asking our customers to stop using them," he said. In the 64 megabit market, a new size of memory chip which went into commercial production this year, he said the focus is on high end chips. "NEC is focusing on the 100 megahertz version that supports Intel's PC100 specification. The market is still in good shape and there is no excess supply because there are few makers," said Sasaki. The PC100 compatible chips work faster than standard memory and is supported by Intel's latest microprocessor and chipset. Typical applications are in high-end workstations, servers and professional multimedia PCs. At the lower end, in the memory market for standard consumer personal computers, the situation is different, "Even in the 64 megabit business, in the 66 megahertz chip area, there is oversupply," said the executive, "but there are no problems in the PC100 market." As for the future of the 64 megabit DRAM market, Sasaki said he is looking to the personal computer makers for the answer. "It all depends on PC product planning. PC100 will be the main stream at the mid to high end but how about the low end? The CPU choice is very important." If PC makers chose clone chips, rather than those from Intel, the machines are likely to include the lower end 66 megahertz chips. This is because, at present, only Intel processors support the PC100 specification. NEC forecast 64 megabit DRAM production, which stood at six million units per month in May, will hit eight million units per month in September and 10 million units per month in December. Sasaki qualified this by adding, "Our estimates are conservative," but said they were based on information the company gets from regular meetings with major personal computer makers. Sasaki sees the best place to be in the industry is at the leading edge, supplying high capacity chips to computer makers while there are few players in the market. To this end, the company is planning to begin production of 128 megabit DRAMs in the second half of this year. He also said the company had not delayed plans to produce even higher capacity memory chips and was still predicting samples of 4 gigabit DRAM chips will be available from NEC in 2000 and commercial shipments in 2002 or 2003.

To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (34916)	6/15/1998 12:19:00 AM
From: DavidG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 53903

Skeeter, those numbers are more important than anything it is called magnitude of move and i was right in that you didn't know they were that different by looking at the cheesy si charts ;-) I disagree...it is called "magnitude of nonsense". You chose the end of year numbers which had an end of your tax selling effect which is always distorted. You truelly don't understand market behavior. even so, lack of money is the answer to your question. mu is almost out of gas. in the middle of the sahara desert. This is just another example of your silly arguments that are always proven wrong. MU reported cash and liquid investments of $935 million. They would have to lose over $4.50 a share for your above statement to be true. In reality, MU should still have over $700+ million after this quarter. once the money is gone... who's going to lend a company money with billions in debt, lots interest payments, and no cash in the middle of a horrible worldwide dram glut? billions in debt??? you are nuts !!!!!!!! DavidG