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Technology Stocks : Xilinx (XLNX) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (2128)	12/9/1998 3:45:00 PM
From: Lucinos	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3291

SkeeterBug, If you really want to short semi companies when the market turns, you definitely want to put BRCM on your radar screen. The downside potential for BRCM will be much much more than those for ALTR and XLNX. The only risk you will have is that BRCM has a name sounds like an internet company (I think this is the only reason this company can have a price higher than most of the semi companies). However, if yhoo is still hovering around 200.00, you should wait for more time. PL

To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (2128)	12/9/1998 4:00:00 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3291

Hi Skeeter Bug; Regarding FPGAs versus ASICs... ASICs are almost always better than FPGAs except that they have higher NREs. So for high volume, ASICs rule now and will always rule. (An exception would be a severely pad-limited design. In that case, the extra silicon that FPGAs use doesn't matter, and the FPGA will be cheaper than custom parts. But this only applies to severely pad limited designs. Pad limited designs that aren't speed limited can be migrated to an older, less expensive process with larger feature sizes.) I just took a good look at the latest XLNX Virtex parts for the first time. They are so much better than ALTR that there really isn't a comparison. The place I'm consulting at has been an ALTR house for about 5 years, and today they are switching over. This is being done in the face of having to switch tool sets and everything. The basic problem with ALTR is that the new 10KE parts are mostly vapor-ware, and are much slower and smaller than the parts XLNX is already shipping. The decision to switch wasn't hard to make. I have a drinking buddy who is a field rep for ALTR. They are offering $4000 to the first guy who is able to deliver to them even a broken Virtex part. We were joking around with the XLNX representative ( Pfost at Thorson Pacific here in Seattle) about this, but he wasn't willing to supply a dead bug for this purpose. -- Carl