As always, idiosyncratically selected and quoted as best I heard it. No warranties express or implied, etc.
Rick Bergman, SR VP, PC business
Discrete graphics $3B market.
IGP $6B market.
Vista first big change in UI since mid 90s, and 3d-reliant good for ATI. Grows discrete opportunity into business users.
ATI focused on "King of the Hill" since 2002. Back in June (05) we stumbled (R520). Competitor filled the vacuum.
"Uncontested leader" with X1900 now. "Pretty good idea of what our competitor is going to be doing as well for at least the next three or four months. And we actually feel pretty confident that our X1900 or future derivatives [Hellllo, R590!] will stay in that lead."
"Performance segment", X1600. "hasn't been our strength" [clear bow towards 6600GT], good oem/Apple reception.
Mainstream and Value. Feeling good.
"And then we get to do it all over again in the Fall timeframe"
[Sounds to me like they've got 4 market segments in their mind now. Enthusiast/Performance/Mainstream/Value.]
Re:X1900 vs G71
"In our market, obviously we follow our competitors closely. And sometimes we get an idea of what they have coming. Certainly the introduction planned in 10 days or so. . .we have a good feel for what they are doing vs our products. And from all appearances it appears that all they doing is taking their current product and shrinking it. The speed. . .they are only marginally improving off their current product."
"Of course we're not sitting still either. . .move our stack up as well over the course of the *Spring".
Re: CrossFire Uptake
CrossFire mobo sales in Dec and January were "great". First CrossFire chipset sales have surpassed their expectations. New mobo coming "in a few days". Expect to have "best performing chipset" in the multi-gpu market once announced next week.
Re: Notebooks
11 quarters of 70%+ market share. "Every February, almost like groundhog day, our competitor claims they are going to double their market share. . ."
"2006 is done" re OEM design cycle in notebooks.
Re: Workstations
Represents best opportunity to increase share. Around 30% now. 2006 is the year they move up from entry level in workstation to middle and upper portions of that market.
Re: Discrete vs IGP
IGP has been growing for them in desktop the last year. First company with DX9 and pcie and that's why they were able to fill when Intel needed them.
At least over next year they expect value area to belong to ATI. Intel will go more mainstream segment IGP.
Re: Overall Gross Margins
Getting back on game with high-end will help considerably. NV's advantage on margins is from workstations (60%) and high-end mobo SLI chipsets.
Re: R&D Spending
10-15 year horizon. Company in India (???? helping with chip design). Architecturally, leveraging investments elsewhere. Next gen product [R6xx, presumably] "leverage heavily" on XB360 design investment. "A lot of that technology is going to move directly into our pc graphics as well."
Re: Consumer Business (hdtv?)
Dedicated to making that a $1B business for them.
*A Note On Definition of Seasons As Used By Graphics IHVs
by geo.
Understand, this is an observational definition gleaned over many years. It is also Northern Hemisphere Imperialistic (Damn Norte Americanos!)
"Spring" ends June 30.
"Summer" ends Sept 30.
"Fall" ends Dec 31.
"Winter" ends Feb 28.
Why is Winter only two months while Spring is 4 months? I don't know, ask them!
And, of course, these are only *end* dates. In fact, some days on the calendar are multi-value, to add to the fun. For instance, June is clearly both Spring and Summer, and September is clearly both Summer and Fall.
