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 : LSI Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Stier who wrote (13439)	7/7/1998 5:07:00 PM
From: DavidG	Respond to of 25814

Peter, Thanks for the two articles. The first one was really good with the buzz about the Sony playstation info(current and future rumor). I think the semis are beaten down so bad that anything positive is going to help LSI. DavidG

To: Peter Stier who wrote (13439)	7/7/1998 5:10:00 PM
From: E. Graphs	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25814

Peter, Thanks for the news, not yet posted.......I guess you caught Moonray sleeping. <g> Can't resist highlighting some stuff... >>Chiaki Terada, president of LSI Logic K.K., said the company's two fabs here have reached a level of sophistication that other companies in Japan can only talk about. "Our Japanese fabs have 9,000 wafer starts a week, producing far more SOC dice than anyone else here," Terada said. "Our devices are far more complex, with four layers of metallization interconnect, and will soon go to six layers. Japanese competitors are still mostly at three layers of metallization."<< :) Sony PlayStation mentioned <zzzzzzzz>>>LSI even beat out competitors in Japan to supply Sony Corp.'s Play Station with a single-chip MIPS R3000 MPU core integrated with a graphics controller and video decoder. Sources said a yet-to-be-announced, next-generation Sony game player will use chips manufactured by both LSI Logic and Toshiba Corp.<< Then the usual....... >>"Many people are struggling to integrate a wide variety of cores on a single chip," Terada said. "A lot of companies talk about achieving this level of integration. But the reality is, they are having a great deal of difficulty producing very complex system-on-a-chip [devices]." Terada said the greater number of metallization layers is crucial in SOC designs to connect the wide number of on-chip logic cores. He added that LSI's long experience as an ASIC and logic-IC manufacturer lend it an advantage over DRAM suppliers, which use fewer metallization layers in their memory chips. "Traditionally, DRAM producers have needed only two layers of metallization, and they are trying to learn how to upgrade to increase the number of layers," he said.<< Hope we get a continued move into semis tomorrow! E

To: Peter Stier who wrote (13439)	7/7/1998 7:25:00 PM
From: Grand Poobah	Respond to of 25814

Peter, thanks for the articles. Part of the answer may lie with Symbios' mixed-signal designs and standard-cell libraries, which could enhance LSI's system-on-a-chip expertise in the long run, said Dan Niles, an analyst at BancAmerica Robertson Stephens, San Francisco. I think LSI's acquisition of mixed-signal technology may be very significant. I am not familiar enough with Symbios and their technology to say for sure, but it could be a very important addition to LSI's SOC and ASSP strategy. Additionally, the translation of Symbios' intellectual-property and mixed-signal designs into LSI's manufacturing processes will consume a great deal of resources at a time when LSI can ill afford to be distracted, observers said. This would be true if LSI were going to simply port all of Symbios' designs into LSI's fabs, but it sounds like Symbios has an advanced fab of their own. Why not just leave Symbios' current products in their own fabs? Then design new products in whichever fab process they fit best. Sure, LSI's engineers will have to deal with a new set of design rules for the Symbios fab, and vice versa, but when you are starting a new design from scratch, it doesn't really waste that "great deal of resources" that is involved in a redesign. G.P.

To: Peter Stier who wrote (13439)	7/7/1998 7:29:00 PM
From: Grand Poobah	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25814

The company's Wichita, Kan.-based disk-drive-array business garnered $125 million in 1996 revenue and chalked up a 1.2% share of the disk-drive-array market, according to Disk/Trend Inc., a Mountain View, Calif., research firm. Is Symbios' market share really 1.2%? That would mean the disk-drive-array market was a $10 billion business in 1996. Does anyone know if this is right or a misprint? Could be correct but seems big to me. If it is correct then Symbios would be only a small player. G.P.