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Technology Stocks : 3Com Corporation (COMS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Doughboy who wrote (18019)	6/23/1998 8:13:00 PM
From: joe	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 45548

>>I wonder though about the analyst's statement in something else someone posted this morning about the NIC market drying up because its functions would be integrated more and more into chips. True?<< Good question, but first, remember what some ANALyst told us yesterday about COMS. (Briefing.com) It's a lot easier for them to sell you 'the easy story' instead of the truth. Most ANALyst have a very limited understanding of technology. They did not major in computer science or engineering or some other science related field. >>...NIC market drying up because its functions would be integrated more and more into chips. True?<< This has been talked about since mid last year. Intel has been trying to do this, but the truth is that it's a lot harder to do than it seems. Steve, who probably knows a lot more about chip technology, could add/verify to my spiel. I think there is also a big question as to whether it's the best strategy (integrating NIC chips onto CPUs), since some people believe that it would lock up two functions together and it's not so good for the box makers and network strategist. Another reason: Intel is the one who most probably would do this, and possibly the only one who would try to do it (IMO), and they would try to do it for proprietary reasons. Another reason the box makers would hate this idea. Another reason: Intel doesn't have the same level of expertise as 3COM to make these chips. We're talking about a lot of intelligence in these things so that more and more control of the Network can be configured. Another reason: If/when somebody does integrate the NIC functions on the chip, then 3COM will do somewhat the same, BUT will be 3 steps ahead, because that's their specialty. Another words, there's still a lot of value that can be incorporated into these NICs as time goes by and the need gets greater because of the more powerful desktop networking capabilities. Personally, I can't wait until all of networking components become more chip oriented, because COMS' niche specialty will be better exploited. This doesn't apply only to NICs, but to switches, hubs, switch routing.... Any network engineers care to comment or correct this? Igor? Steve?