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 : IDTI - an IC Play on Growth Markets -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scumbria who wrote (9107)	7/7/1998 2:52:00 PM
From: Rob S.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 11555

That's true and could be significant if the OEMs support the concept and parts of the "package" don't move more rapidly than the functions incorporated into the integrated part. Some other advantages of integrating more stuff on the chip is that bus widths and speeds can usually be increased to full uP core frequencies and I/O and more granular interfaces can be employed. A big question is how accepted the SOC implementation will be - what functions are most feasible and advantageous to incorporate into the single piece of silicon and will that be what the market wants at the time its available. The more thats integrated into the die, the more difficult it is to match market demand exactly. Glen Henry has chosen to not try to implement the graphics processor into the uP SOC because the technology is changing rapidly. No doubt about it, IDT has many hurdles to surmount to bring parts to market and attract buyers. --------- What is causing IDT's price to move down lower than 7 and will it hit 8 by the 14th? There is not much new information out that would give much higher degree of faith that management is on tract to meeting their goals. Things look promising but the market is not very kind to semis and probably wont be until latter in the summer or into the fall. IDT is probably "dead money" until they show greater results in carrying out their plans. In the longer-term perspective, now is probably a good time to buy/hold IDTI. But we all know that they face many challenges in going after the huge market for WinChip parts. I sure don't have much confidence in calling the outcome of that effort at this point. I wish IDT the best in their efforts and hope for investors sake that they pull out of their slump soon. Until that happens, IDT remains vulnerable to some extent. Maybe it's good that we haven't heard much real news from IDT, maybe that's a sign that they will have more to announce around the time of the earnings announcement, that's pure speculation and the lack of confidence building news will continue to weight the stock down.

To: Scumbria who wrote (9107)	7/8/1998 9:14:00 PM
From: wmf	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 11555

>>The packaging and testing costs of chips is beginning to exceed the >>manufacturing cost of the dies. By incorporating several individual >>chips into one piece of silicon, the total packaging/testing cost is >>greatly reduced. Hmmm. Not really sure about that. For processors the package quite certainly constitutes a big part of the cost. Memory chips, though, go into inexpensive plastic packages. For the integrated chip you might actually end up with a more expensive package because you exchange one big package with tight processor specs against a small package with tight specs and another small package with loose specs. Also I do not really see test advantages. Each of the components of the integrated chip will have to go through the same time consuming test procedures as the individual chips separately. Test time will remain the same. Handling time might be better for the system-on-a-chip but then again the handling time is only a small part of the whole thing.