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gec plessey semiconductors - Archive Server

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ecord of price performance improvements unmatched in<br />

any other industry in recorded business history.<br />

Let me share with you three sets of numbers relative to<br />

MIPS, memory, and microprocessors that will illustrate my<br />

point. n 1986, one MIP on a workstation cost, on<br />

average, $14,600. An average MIP in 1990 costs just over<br />

$1,000. ^^Mnd, within the last month, Hewlett-Packard<br />

announced a 700 Series workstation at a MIP cost of $210.<br />

'^^In memories, DRAM prices per IK bit in 1976 was $1,600<br />

which in 1990 has shrunk to 6 2/3 cents.<br />

^^^In microprocessors, a 68000 MIP in 1979 cost $330,<br />

while in 1989 a MIP worth of power on a 68040 was<br />

approximately $50.00.<br />

Those are stunning improvements in price performance.<br />

And yet, there is in that picture the kernel of a destructive<br />

force that is, in my view, symptomatic of a larger issue<br />

that is becoming more and more visible and with a greater<br />

and greater urgency for recognition and resolution. And<br />

that is the issue of profitability.<br />

I shall spend the next several minutes discussing the flip<br />

side (the other side) of the price-performance picture<br />

which is one of declining margins and diminishing<br />

5/22/91, 11:28 AM<br />

Page 2

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