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From: lunatic@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Lunatic)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Speedy WDC Chips (was Re: Apple II Users)
Message-ID: <5814@lindy.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 16 Nov 89 10:32:48 GMT
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In article <9032@microsoft.UUCP> brianw@microsoft.UUCP (Brian Willoughby) writes:
>I'm not claiming to know about markets, but I don't see how investing in
>WDC could be anything but a good idea for Apple.  RAM chips have MANY
>suppliers in several countries, and any one can undercut the other or
>dump old stock.  WDC is currently the ONLY maker of the 65C8xx line, so
>there is no danger of the wildly fluctuating prices which might ruin a
>good investment.  Even if another company were to start up in the 65C8xx
>line, they still couldn't threaten to damage any investment that Apple
>might make in WDC.  Basically, while investing in a particular RAM
>manufacturer opens a company up to the possibility of becoming unable to
>compete with other computer manufacturers (i.e. when the prices drop and
>they are stuck with relatively expensive materials), investing in the
>only source of a component is actually insurance for the future as well
>as a good way to advance the performance of a product.
>
   \_/
    |ou've made a few mistakes, here.  WDC is NOT the only maker of
65816s.  Where do you think Apple gets the 65c816s it uses in the IIGS?
Certainly not WDC.  If Apple got their 65c816s from WDC, do you think
that shouting match between Jean Louis Gasse' and Bill Mensch at
AppleFest San Francisco would have happened?  (I was there, and it was
the BEST part of the entire keynote. :)  No, Apple gets their parts
from some other company that licenses the technology from WDC and
manufactures the parts for a much lower price.  Whatever company that is
(probably some south Asian entity) does not have the technology to
manufacture 65c816s at speeds much higher than 3 Mhz.  If Apple were to
invest in WDC, it would take a BIG risk that none of the other companies
that manufacture 65c816s (there are quite a few) could manufacture
higher speed processors at any time in the near future for prices lower
than WDC's.  This chance is slim to none.  I personally doubt that
Apple will EVER purchase any large quantities of chips from WDC.
Pricewise, WDC just can't compete with the cheap labour and materials
that south Asian companies build their products with.  Apple is a
business, and whether we like it or not, the driving force behind any
business is the bottom line.

>
>Brian Willoughby
>UUCP:           ...!{tikal, sun, uunet, elwood}!microsoft!brianw
>InterNet:       microsoft!brianw@uunet.UU.NET
>  or:           microsoft!brianw@Sun.COM
>Bitnet          brianw@microsoft.UUCP
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