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Technology Stocks : The New QLogic (ANCR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Craig Stevenson who wrote (19172)	11/7/1998 5:43:00 PM
From: The Freep	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29386

Nice summary, Craig. I'd also like to add that in this latest onslaught of nearly non-stop FC announcements -- you know, the batch where Ancor has not been mentioned -- we have not seen much if any mention of Ancor's biggest competitor, Brocade, either. No one seems to mention that, though. In fact, most (though not all) announcements do not include switch vendors, hence no reason to mention Ancor. The overview articles, likewise, tend only to mention a small handful of the FC players -- Ancor might not be mentioned, but there are dozens upon dozens of FC players ALSO not mentioned. It is often hard to keep the Ancor faith, that's for certain. If/when Brocade and Vixel announce a product to compete with the MK-8, that'll be a bummer, too. But it's a very large market out there, and Ancor management certainly seems confident of getting their "fair share" of deals. That's one more reason to be at least mildly optimistic about Ancor's chances, as so far, this new management team has delivered on most of what they've promised, even if sometimes we didn't see it coming. the freep

To: Craig Stevenson who wrote (19172)	11/7/1998 6:00:00 PM
From: Roger Arquilla	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29386

Craig...that was a great historical perspective on the emergence of fibre channel and Ancor's past and present position. After all that has happened, I can wait until 99. You can't put your fingers on it...but the feeling of good things to come is here for the first time since the Sequent collapse sent our dreams swirling down the sewer.

To: Craig Stevenson who wrote (19172)	11/7/1998 6:59:00 PM
From: George Dawson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29386

Craig, I think your analysis left out the hard luck factor. If I recall the Sequent deal correctly, they were all set up to use Ancor's older switch until it was discovered that the switch was not interop with another manufacturer's ASIC. Apparently engineering time was lost trying to resolve the problem that could only be resolved with a respin of the other manufacturer's ASIC. The Silkworm happened to work at the right time and Ancor lost that contract. I wonder what would have happened if there were no initial interop problems at Sequent. I am still wondering if Sequent has actually installed many switched fabrics with the Silkworm. If that is really the case, you could make the argument that Sequent/Brocade missed the market on the early side. Granted the older switch has significantly greater latency, but it would have been used to cluster disks and not processors (we knew back then that Sequent had their own proprietary system for processor clustering). George

To: Craig Stevenson who wrote (19172)	11/7/1998 8:21:00 PM
From: Craig Stevenson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29386

Nancy (and Christine), I'm not sure I made this clear in my earlier post, but in my view Ancor has corrected most, if not all of the problems that caused those earlier problems. Based on Greg and George's research into the Reg D issue, I further believe that the currently depressed stock price has more to do with Reg D shorting and converting than with the intrinsic value of the company or its future potential. Unfortunately, it is a reality that must be dealt with, but we (investors) are slowly, but surely dealing with it. A case in point is the new advertising campaign. I don't think anyone else has seen it, but the new ad that I saw was a big improvement over the old ones. I'll be very curious to hear what other people say when they see it. Another thing that has changed is awareness of Fibre Channel in general. We used to see articles in the trade magazines about "What is Fibre Channel?". Now, we see articles about implementing Switched Fabric SANS. BIG DIFFERENCE! That's why there is still room for some enthusiasm from some of us battered, bruised, and bloodied ANCR longs going forward. <g> Craig