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Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 11:57:21 -0400
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From: dennis <dennis@etinc.com>
Subject: Re: if_de.c ???? 
Cc: hackers@freebsd.org
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At 04:25 PM 5/13/97 -0700, you wrote:
>>>I can't see why not.  They've been doing it for the last 15 years, I
>>>can't see them stopping now.  If they do, I can see a lot of people
>>>giving them the Diamond/Matrox/Microchannel shoulder.
>>
>>Because they posted $1.40 loss per share last quarter, and haven't
>>had a profitable quarter in a year. Because their stock, which was 
>>trading at 28 at the start of '95, is now hovering around 8. Because
>>no matter what you think their economies of scale are, they cant
>>compete with Taiwanese labor costs, and cant turn a profit selling
>>against boards that sell for $35.
>
>   They've always sold cards with NICs with publically available specs, so
>nothing that has occurred in the last year has anything to do with this.
>As I'm sure you know, just about all networking stocks are way down at the
>moment, not just SMC and 3Com, but Cisco, Bay Networks, and everyone else
>producing networking products. Try again.

Actually, you are wrong David. What's "occurred" is a massive expansion in
demand that allows multiple clone manufactures to buy parts in HUGE quantities
and sell at tiny margins. THAT, is a big occurrance, particulary when the
price point
of these ASICs drop to nearly nothing at very large quantities.

Dennis