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Technology Stocks : Rambus (RMBS) - Eagle or Penguin -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rosemary who wrote (15537)	2/13/1999 7:53:00 AM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 93625

February 15, 1999, Issue: 1048 Section: News -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chip-set delays seen pushing back rollout of Katmai PCs based on full-speed Rambus -- Intel's Camino stalls en route to 133 MHz David Lammers San Francisco - Difficulties in taking the Intel Camino chip set to the speeds necessary to accommodate a 133-MHz system bus may delay the rollout of personal computers based on the full-speed Rambus technology, sources said. Instead, Intel Corp. may support a 100-MHz system bus for its initial Pentium III processors, using Direct Rambus DRAMs operating at 600 MHz. The Pentium III, or Katmai, will formally launch this week. Analyst Mark Edelstone at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter said the 820 Camino chip set needed to support the 800-MHz Rambus memories will be delayed to the third quarter. PC OEMs, he said, will go ahead with June introductions of Rambus-based systems, but with the memory speeds slowed to 600 MHz. "Although these systems will not offer the full bandwidth benefit inherent in the Rambus memory architecture, we believe that PCs with the 600-MHz version of Direct Rambus DRAMs will offer twice as much bandwidth as PC/100 versions when they run bandwidth-intensive applications like video and 3-D graphics," Edelstone wrote in a report. Major PC makers had expected to introduce initial full-speed Rambus systems in June, moving to full-volume shipments in the second half. That schedule, while never officially endorsed by Intel, may now be pushed back, with a 100/600-MHz specification inserted. "We are on track to introduce the Rambus technology in 1999," said an Intel spokesman. At Rambus, marketing vice president Subodh Toprani said that the 600-MHz specification-referred to by Intel as "the down bin"-has been in the Rambus product plan since 1997. "At this point, there is not enough data. No one can say there won't be an 800-MHz introduction as planned," Toprani said. Edelstone wrote that his firm still believes "Intel is on track to introduce a version of the chip set that will support 600-MHz versions of Direct Rambus DRAMs toward the end of the second quarter. However, we believe difficult technical hurdles will likely cause upwards of a three-month delay in Intel's ability to deliver a version of the 820 chip set to support the full Direct Rambus DRAM spec of 800 MHz." Intel has said it will reveal modified plans for its Rambus program at the Intel Developers Forum set for Feb. 23-25. A likely scenario is support for a two-stage introduction, with the initial Pentium III processor linked to a 100-MHz system bus by a Camino chip set that supports RDRAMs operating at 600 MHz. Once Camino silicon is ready that can support the 133-MHz system bus, and once yields on the full-spec RDRAMs reach sufficient quantities, PC OEMs could introduce the 133/800 systems. Performance balance The issue is how to balance the overall performance of the system, sources said. Without a chip set that can support a 133-MHz system bus, there is little need to move to the 800-MHz Rambus technology. The 600-MHz Rambus parts can provide 1.2 Gbytes/second of peak bandwidth, compared with 1.6 Gbytes/s for the 800-MHz RDRAMs and 500 Mbytes/s for the PC100 SDRAMs. The bandwidth is divided among the system bus, the Accelerated Graphics Port and the PCI bus. PC OEMs would like to refresh the top ends of their product line in the second half. But one source said that some IT managers are reluctant to move to the Rambus technology while the year-2000 problem is putting demands on the software used in corporate America. Another source noted that delays in the delivery of full-spec Rambus parts would make more room for the PC133 SDRAM specification to be adopted in the personal-computer sector. Copyright ® 1999 CMP Media Inc.

To: Rosemary who wrote (15537)	2/13/1999 8:05:00 AM
From: unclewest	Respond to of 93625

Motorola, hmmm, i read yesterday that they were getting together with siemens and were about to get into the memory business again. unclewest reh, you follow mo, you have anything on this? ASML Wins Orders From Samsung, Motorola; Shares Surge Veldhoven, Netherlands, Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- ASM Lithography Holding NV, the world's second-largest maker of machines used to print images on semiconductors, said it won orders from Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Inc. worth 300 million guilders ($153 million). Its shares surged as much as 9.5 percent to 43.40, their highest since April 1998. The order from Motorola, the world's No. 2 cellular phone maker, is worth about 100 million guilders and the Samsung order is worth 200 million guilders. The order is the first from Motorola. Samsung, the world's largest maker of memory chips, has been a customer since 1995. The orders from the two companies were expected, and show that ASML is on track to sell more than the 135 systems it needs to break even. ''These are good-sized orders from important customers, but they had been factored in to estimates for the full year,'' said Doug Smith, an analyst at Salomon Smith Barney who rates the stock an ''outperform.'' ''They're in good shape.'' While the company didn't disclose how many systems were ordered, Chief Financial Officer Gerard Verdonschot said the systems ordered have an average selling price of about 15 million guilders each, indicating about 20 systems. Verdonschot said the Samsung order was bigger than expected and marked a switch to ASML systems from those of Nikon Corp., the world's biggest maker of wafer steppers. ASML aims to gain about 2 percent market share per year to eventually bump Nikon out of the top spot. ''Samsung ordered more machines than we expected,'' said Verdonschot. ''And the door is now open at Motorola for ASML.'' Motorola is buying ASML's newest product, the PAS 5500/770B deep UV step and scan system, and two other systems. The machines can process 104 200-millimeter wafers per hour, which Motorola expects to help it cut costs. The order from Samsung is an ''early sign'' that the memory- chip market is recovering, Dave Chavoustie, ASML's vice president of worldwide sales said in a statement. Samsung is buying the ASML chip-making systems to increase production of direct rambus DRAM chips, used in top-end PCs. ASML shares gained in early January after Samsung announced a plan to boost investment by 30 percent. The company is the best performer this year among the 26 stocks on Amsterdam's benchmark AEX Index. 05:39:55 02/12/1999 For more stories from Bloomberg News, click here. (C) Copyright 1999 Bloomberg L.P.