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From: lharris@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Leonard Harris)
Date: Thu, 17-Mar-88 19:53:28 EST
Message-ID: <1988Mar17.195328.12277@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Toronto Computing Services
Subject: Atari fights back ! (so should you!)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,comp.sys.atari.st,comp.misc

This appeared in the Toronto Star yesterday:
"...Atari Corp. accused an Idaho semiconductor company of "exploiting" a
shortage of computer memory chips to get a higher price....
Atari's lawsuit in federal District Court in San Jose charges that Micron
Technology Inc. of Boise breached its contract and violated antitrust laws
when it canceled a telephone order for 3 million DRAM chips.  Micron later
tried to offer an unspecified number of chips to Atari at a much higer price, AAtari said. ..."
Sound familiar?  Have you tried to get 256K rams recently.  In toronto, quoted
prices (for micron) are $8.00 with 6-8 week delivery.  Places with stock want
over $12.00 and usually demand a certified cheque within 2 hours of the order.
(we're talking minimum 2K pieces.)  I was paying $2.50 each 1 year ago.
Since Japan stopped shipping (note: not dumping) ram to north america, the 
US manufactures have been gouging the public.  I believe the only US 
DRAM manufactures of note are Motorola and Micron Tech.  Neither can meet demand
 - Last time I spoke to someone at micron they told me they are on allocation and
can't fill any "small" orders.
Wasn't it these same companies that forced congress to stop japanese DRAM 
imports saying it would cripple the US high teck markets?  So to "save"
these two companies from financial ruin, all technology that uses DRAMs 
is being held ransom by the US semiconductor industry.
Fight back!!  There is no reason 256K x 1 rams should cost <$3.00  There
isn't even an american company that makes 1 Megabit DRAMS (don't ask what
they cost).
Unix et al. can't run on 64K Z80 systems.  The 80386's, 68030's, t800's etc.
need lots of memory to be useful and American firms will get left behind
in building systems if only the Japanese have access to DRAM's.

Enough said.  Canada is pretty impotent when it comes to things like this so
its up to you in the US to put pressure on washington to change things.
I hope this happens soon!
/leonard