Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : VLSI Technology - Waiting for good news from NASDAQ !!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joseph E. Caiazzo who wrote (3755)	6/30/1998 1:03:00 PM
From: DanZ	Respond to of 6565

Joe, The volume has dropped off but VLSI is holding near 17 even though the SOX sold off a bit more to a low of 245.87. It has now recovered to 246.31. Did anybody notice that ARMHY is up 6 1/4 today to 60 3/4. VLSI has a big stake in this company and the price has doubled since its IPO a few months ago. I wonder if VLSI's move today is related to the move in ARMHY. They make chips for cellular telephones. Dan

To: Joseph E. Caiazzo who wrote (3755)	6/30/1998 1:48:00 PM
From: DanZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6565

<Are there any EEs out there who can give us a (non-technical) rundown about how this will affect vlsi profits> Joe, Although my specialty isn't semiconductor manufacturing, I'm a EE and have enough background to understand some of the press release. One micron is 1 micrometer. Said another way, it is 1 x 10^-6 meters or 1 one millionth of a meter. <VLSI said today that its 0.25-micron (drawn gate length; 0.18-micron Leffective) VSC9 custom circuit process technology has passed its stringent qualification requirements in its San Antonio, Texas fab line and is in full production.> They are talking about a manufacturing process for Field Effect Transistors (FETs). A FET has three terminals, a gate, a drain, and a source. The gate sits between the drain and the source and the gate length is the distance between the drain and the source. The closer the drain is to the source, the faster electrons can travel through the transistor, and the faster the chip operates. The 0.18 Leffective length means that the chip operates as if the drain and source were 0.18 microns apart even though they are actually 0.25 microns apart. This is a result of the materials used and the general design of the circuit. So with that background, what does this mean for VLSI's business? Well, for one thing, VLSI has developed a process in house that allows them to make chips down to 0.25 microns and they are working on technology that will get them down to 0.15 microns. This is among the smallest size (and fastest) chips that I am aware of in the semiconductor industry and puts VLSI in the forefront ahead of other suppliers. I can't tell you exactly what the effect will be on their bottom line, but this certainly gives VLSI a competitive advantage over other companies and rates them as a top notch, highly respected supplier. Keep in mind that other companies can buy the same semiconductor manufacturing equipment that VLSI uses, but it is their proprietary manufacturing process that allows them to get down to 0.25 microns. This says a lot for the engineering and management talent at VLSI. Add to this their recent news on the CDMA chip (of which other companies tried to make and failed), and one can see that VLSI employs a highly talented group of people. This also adds to the company's value. I hope this information helps. Dan PS..Now back to what I'm better at..TA..VLSI is now bid 17 and the SOX held support at 246 and has rallied to 247.16 as we speak. It's looking very good to me for a further rally in both the SOX and VLSI. I'm looking for the SOX to test 265 and VLSI to test 20 1/4.