Goldman on Intel: ‘Avoid the Stock’

Tablets are the real deal and they’re affecting the PC market, say Goldman Sachs analysts, in a note on Intel pithily subtitled “tablets impacting PC dynamics, servers slowing, avoid the stock.”

Goldman’s Intel analysts piggy back on a call from new Goldman hardware analyst Bill Shope who estimates that PC and server units will grow 8% and 5%, year-over-year, which is “well-below consensus estimates for low-teens PC growth.”

With PC [manufacturers] now engaged with [vendors that sell chips that rely on rival chip technology licensed by ARM Holdings] the software ecosystems at Apple and Android growing quickly, and Microsoft potentially enabling Windows for ARM, we believe Intel will face increased processor competition. Given Intel’s 3% dividend yield, resumed buyback, and the 81% increase in November short interest, we remain Neutral rated on the stock and prefer [Texas Instruments] in large-cap semis.

The Philly semiconductor index is down noticeable 0.8% Monday. As we’ve mentioned tons of times, the index of chip makers has long been considered something of a leading indicator for the broader markets. But notes such as Goldman’s seem to suggest that semiconductor industry leaders might be battling some structural shifts, which would seem to make us a bit more skeptical as to the measure’s usefulness on a cyclical basis.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2010/12/13/goldman-on-intel-avoid-the-stock/

AMD Cayman PCB naked shots

After some naked shots of AMD's so-close-we-can-smell-it Radeon HD6970? Look no further, below there are some shots of the card with it's cooler taken off and put on it's coat hanger.

There are also various spec details regarding the GPU and it's board design also.

To begin with, the GPU indeed has a 256-bit wide memory interface, counting the memory chips on the obverse side, and looking at the size of the GPU package.

The size of the die, and taken that Cayman is a 40 nm GPU, indicate that Cayman is not much bigger than Cypress, it should be about 400~500 million transistors higher compared to Cypress.

Given the roughly 2500 million transistor count, the stream core count of 1536 seems more realistic. AMD is said to be using an architecturally
superior VLIW4 stream processor design that increases performance per mm² die area.

The board uses a high-grade 6+2+1+1 phase digital PWM voltage regulation design, draws power from 8+6 pin power connectors.

The reverse side of the PCB has no memory chips, so AMD might be using 2 Gbit memory chips to get 2 GB of total memory.

Source: http://tweaktown.com/news/18020/amd_cayman_pcb_naked_shots/

Behind the decision to combine Lexmark's divisions

Lexmark International's recent decision to combine its laser and inkjet printer divisions was made to mirror the company's strategy of recent years, its chief executive said last week.

Paul Rooke is a firm believer that a company's management structure should follow its strategy, he said, and Lexington-based Lexmark's has been evolving to focus its inkjet division more on business customers, who are the core base for its laser division.

Lexmark has been radically realigning its inkjet division because the company found in recent years that the consumers who once bought their printers, which were sometimes bundled for free with computers, weren't buying enough of the highly profitable ink to meet profit expectations.



Since that time, the company has redesigned its inkjets to focus more on business customers, who print more than consumers. The printers now offer touchscreens and so-called "Smart Solutions" that allow companies to customize many settings and applications for individual users.

As the company evolved technologically to build those products, it already was consolidating technical functions because the laser and inkjet offerings were blending, Rooke said.

When the company began discussing the October retirement of CEO Paul Curlander and Rooke's elevation from inkjet leader to CEO, the latter said "it was a natural transition point, if you will ... to transition the rest of the organization."

"Structure follows strategy," he said. "I looked at our strategy and how it was evolving. As ... inkjet and laser's strategies were converging, it made sense to therefore converge the structure."

The combination of divisions didn't mean any job losses, the company has said, other than the position of inkjet leader, which wasn't filled after Rooke's promotion. Marty Canning, who led the laser division that was previously overseen by Rooke before he took over the troubled inkjet unit, leads the combined division.

The move will help Lexmark's salespeople, as the combined division will mean "a broader and better set" of offerings for customers as the development teams work united instead of as part of two divisions, Canning said.

"The sales organization was already representing both of these product portfolios," he noted. "They just didn't have a product development organization as aligned as we will be ...

"We can solve a larger set of their business problems because of this."

Rooke added that the combination of divisions also will mean "more consistency across the full breadth of technologies addressing business customers' needs."

"That will be a powerful statement for us," he said.

Employees have been receptive to the change, Rooke said, as many already had seen the shift coming since the inkjet strategy change in recent years.

One group of employees that will still be a standalone division, though, is Lexmark's recently acquired Perceptive Software unit. The Kansas-based company develops software that helps businesses manage content.

"We intentionally kept it separate because it's a smaller piece," Rooke said. "A lot of times if you try to combine a smaller piece with a bigger piece, it can get squashed, and we didn't want that to happen."

Perceptive Software CEO Scott Coons said the key is that Lexmark's reorganization hasn't changed its strategy.

"The goal is to grow Perceptive Software and leverage all the great things Lexmark brings to bear to grow our business," he said.

Reaction to the reorganization has been positive from the analyst community, Rooke said. Among those who find it encouraging is Ed Crowley, founder of Versailles-based printer industry research firm The Photizo Group.

"That's really going to be a big positive for them," Crowley said. "I think it's a smart move."

He said it didn't make sense at this point to have a full division and the infrastructure that comes with it to go after the business customers for inkjet.

"It really brings them to a singular focus," he said.


Source: www.kentucky.com/2010/12/13/1564495/behind-the-decision-to-combine.html