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

To: Bob Howarth who wrote (17573)	3/30/1999 11:15:00 AM
From: Tony Viola	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25814

Bob, re LSI making ASICs for SGI NT workstations. This is certainly good news. We have evaluated SGI's new workstations (pre integration of LSI ASICs) and found them to be a big performance improvement over your "standard" NT workstations. SGI has made a significant performance improvement by redesigning the functions mentioned in the article: LSI Logic's innovative ASIC technology is helping Silicon Graphics cut through the typical bottlenecks of the PC architecture by integrating a range of functionality into a cost-effective I/O processor. This high-performance system-on-a-chip I/O offering enables a broad range of communications, graphics and audio functionality. The ''building block'' solution includes an I/O controller, which integrates 1394, audio, PCI, video output and USB functionalities. The second LSI Logic custom chip is a display controller which includes a video digital-to-analog converter (VDAC) that serves as an interface to the company's award-winning Silicon Graphics 1600SWO flat panel display. SGI probably went into production with the above functions implemented in FPLD ala Xilinx or Altera (just guessing), now want to go to permanent ASICs for reduced cost, maybe more speed still. This could be great news for LSI. The only caveat I have, and there is always at least one, is will SGI be a Phoenix rising from the ashes, or continue to be on the outs in the workstation area? The performance of their box should ensure the former, but you never know. LSI's amount of business from this, of course, depends solely on whether SGI can market the new workstation successfully. Tony