Saturn V

5 Comments

    • ON: Wed Jun 25th 11:48 AM
      Commented on:
      Credence and LTX Merging
      The Semiconductor Equipment Industry Revenue is less than it was a decade ago. Credence and LTX are a distant No. 4 and No. 5 in a shrinking business, and both are struggling. There are some synergies in this merger, but can the combined entity be profitable ? LTX is the smaller player but has the advantage of being tied to a healthy TI. Credence's fate hinges upon a floundering AMD.

      More consolidation will be needed in this business, unless the semiconductor equipment business begins to grow again. I think that within 2 years,the new Credence-LTX entity will merge with one of the big three in the tester business, ie Advantest,Teradyne, or Verigy.
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    • ON: Sun May 11th 16:41 PM
      Commented on:
      Nationwide WiMAX: Who Benefits?
      You seem to have a big lack of vision. I ran into a lot of people with a similar mindset 20 years ago, when cellular telephony was in its infancy. A lot of financial analysts and rag writers, commented, " I have a phone in my house, and I have a phone on my desk. Why would me or anyone want a phone for the car or else where."
      There is built in market for Laptops. I love WiFi but its limited range and availability, and a lack of a standardized carriers are real problems. I have a tough time using my Laptop at Airports consistently. Elsewhere it is a real doubtful case. WiMax ends those issues.

      iPhone is just the leading edge of devices, which will make WiMax look brilliant. Presently internet access on cell phones is a joke. Newer devices will make Wimax just as ubiquitous as cell phone coverage.

      Maybe cell phones will even dissappear, having being absorbed into iPhone type devices. That is why existing Carriers like Verizon and ATT are the biggest opponents of WiMax. They see the future and are terrified. So they are doing their best trying to derail WiMax. They dont have much of a hope, because WiMax will take off in places like India and other countries without mass internet coverage. This will give WiMax the huge international economies of scale, that the solutions proposed by Verizon, ATT will never take off.
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    • ON: Mon Dec 3rd 20:25 PM
      Commented on:
      The Tellurium Supernova
      [...minor edits of same post]

      Ovonics has had the same "potential" for the last 35 years.Intel worked with Ovonics in the early 70's, and scrubbed it. Almost 10 years ago, Intel went back to Ovonics, and it is still a no-show.

      I am skeptical about the claims.I have seen so many technologies claim that they were going to dislodge DRAMs, and waste a lot of investors money in the process.The pace of progress in the semiconductor memory is so fast, the volumes and the economies of scale are so huge, that it has been impossible for any challenger to make an impact.Unless the traditional memory technologies run into a major roadblock, the prognosis for a challenger is grim.

      NAND FLASH memory is also on a tear, but it has some performance limitations like number of erase cycles etc.That may present an opening for Ovonics style devices to exploit, since the new technology will inevitably cost more, and it needs a strong foothold in the performance area to have any chance of survival.If it can meet the write erase cycle challenge at almost the same cost of NAND FLASH, it may end up replacing rotating memories for ultraportable computers.

      But I would not buy Tellurium stocks as yet.
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    • ON: Mon Dec 3rd 20:16 PM
      Commented on:
      The Tellurium Supernova
      Ovonics has had the same potential for the last 35 years.Intel worked with Ovonics in the early 70's, and scrubbed it. Almost 10 years ago, Intel went back to Ovonics, and it is still a now show.

      I am skeptical about the claims.i have seen so many technologies claim that they were going to dislodge DRAMs, and waste a lot of investors money in the process.The pace of progress in the semiconductor memory is so fast, the volumes and the economies of scale are so huge, that it has been impossible for any challenger to make an impact.Unless the traditional memory technologies run into a major roadblock, the prognosis for a challenger is grim.

      NAND FLASH memory is also on a tear, but it has some performance limitations like number of erase cycles etc.That may present an opening for Ovonics style devices to exploit, since the new technology will inevitably cost more, and it needs a strong foothold in the performance area to have any chance of survival.
      View article »
    • ON: Mon Sep 24th 19:13 PM
      Commented on:
      AMD Needs a Multi-Core Killer App
      sramana,
      You seem to be a victim of the AMD propaganda machine. Specifically you state 'but several agencies did the testing and ultimately gave AMD the thumbs up.". the reality is that the relative performance was a mixed bag, depending on the applications used, AMD lost on performance in most cases. AMD only won in high bandwith,multi-sockete... applications,which is a small subset of the market.The loss in other segments was a major reason in AMD major financial losses for the last 3 quarters.

      The reality is that AMD has gained a tiny market share by selling its products at a loss. Its Average Selling price in the High Performance Markets has collapsed, and it is reduced to a "value vendor".

      Unfortunately the latest Barcelona chip is not the promised savior. It is losing even more performance benchmarks to Intel's Penryn chip family.

      AMD has stubbornly refused to downsize, and the red ink continues to flow with no end in sight. A restructuring is needed, or AMD desperately needs some one to bail them out, someone who can stomach losing $500 million every quarter.
      View article »
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