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Technology Stocks : Racom Systems (RCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gutterball who wrote (165)	7/25/1998 7:15:00 PM
From: Gutterball	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 468

I probably learned more about Racom in the Ramtron conference call #reply-5311939 then I will in Racom's up coming Q2 report. Highlights: "We have produced the first silicon and proven functionality of the next generation FRAM-based GO-Card collection chip for Cubic. In addition, we have entered into a new contract with Cubic to supply the optimized design by year end." "Cubic has a variable delivery that will be defined the middle of August. At the low end it's about 200,000 units and at the high end it's about 700,000 units. Based on input from Cubic at this time, it's closer to 700,000." Note: This suggests Racom will earn a royalty from Cubic 10 to 35 times greater than what it will report this Q2. "The new design allows Cubic to lower the over-all cost of the smartcard, making it more economical to produce and easier to market. We expect this new design to fuel new pilot programs and increase usage within existing programs." Note: Existing program is Washington DC, one pilot is probably Chicago. Dan Scovil: "The second generation Cubic part, are you still manufacturing that yourself, or is that going through foundry?" Lee Brown: "We will run that part here through the end of this year, and then we will be working on what we call the CUBE 3 which will be a design that will go into as I said, most likely the Fujitsu foundry on the .5 micron line." Else where, Lee says, "We are currently evaluating initial 64K commercial silicon produced at Fujitsu with good results." Note: I submit the CUBE 3 design will feature Fujitsu's 64K FRAM chip in the RX-15 series card #reply-5310057. This card will be the Death Star to other multi-purpose cards and consequently places Racom the realm of vertical integration. "In addition we have begun to make good on our promise to reduce FRAM R&D expenses by ramping down our internal production." Note: I was under the impression Racom was only buying FRAM from Ramtron. I need to check this out, other implications may be at play. "I think that we're seeing a very good market response [to FRAM]. The downside is that EEPROM's have dropped dramatically in price, 4K's are selling for as low as 21 cents, 16K's are below 30 cents, so we're not going to go after those sockets. We will only go after those sockets where the customer can leverage the capability of our product... And we're also continuing discussions with some other custom type products for RFID type applications." Note: Keyword here is RFID. I smell more royalties on the horizon for Racom. "We anticipate a license fee in the third quarter... the licensee would not be ST." Note: It is not clear if Ramtron and Racom are talking about the same licensee.

To: Gutterball who wrote (165)	7/28/1998 3:10:00 PM
From: Gutterball	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 468

On January 16, 1998, Racom Systems, Inc. announced the appointment of John A. Hinds to its board of directors. Mr. Hinds, an executive vice president of VeriFone, Inc. until July 1996, replaces board member David Sikes, chairman and CEO of Ramtron International Corp., who is leaving to focus on the growing demand for his time to manage Ramtron's specialty memory products. While at VeriFone, Mr. Hinds was responsible for all field operations worldwide, including engineering, marketing, and sales for products in the U.S. and in more than 80 countries internationally. He joined VeriFone in March 1993 from AT&T, where he served as senior vice president, international, of the parent company and president of AT&T International. Prior to AT&T, Mr. Hinds spent 11 years with the General Electric company in a variety of management positions. Mr. Hinds was also president of the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization for the 1992-1994 term. Since 1996, Mr. Hinds has served the Board of Directors and has provided consulting services to various domestic and international business, cultural, and educational organizations. sec.gov