David Cheung

* 1. WHAT WAS MATRIX STRATEGY AT THE START * 2. WHAT WAS MATRIX CORE COMPETENCIES * 3. WHAT DID THE COMPANY NEED TO DO OR * NOT DO TO STAY FOCUSED ON ITS CORE * COMPETENCIES * 4. IF YOU WERE DAN STEERE IN 1999 WHAT * WOULD YOU RECOMMEND TO THE TEAM * 5. SHOULD MATRIX DEVELOP R/W OR OTP * 6. HOW SHOULD MATRIC POSITION ITSELF IN THE * MARKET * 7. WHAT BUSINESS MODEL SHOULD THE COMPANY ADOPT * 8. BASED ON THE MODEL YOU RECOMMEND, FIGURE OUT * THE APPROXIMATE SIZE OF MATRIX’S MARKET OPPORTUNITY * 9. ONCE MATRIX PROVES THE VIABILITY OF ITS PRODUCT, WHAT SHOULD IT DO * NEXT.

1) Matrix’s strategy at the start was to have smaller, faster and cheaper 3d chips. They used two different technologies using the flat panel display to enable multiple, active processing layers in Matrix 3d chips and finally, chemical mechanical processing to eliminate the bumps and valley in each layer of the chip that could inhibit functionality. Something that worked well against their advantage was the fact that the company had very experienced engineers.

2) – able to make ultra dense, small and cheap memory chips * had the supplies and knowledge to place functional transistors on multiple layers of a single chip * built nonvolatile memory chips * chips didn’t require best performance and less technical issues

3) They have to keep designing and building a prototype of the 3d chip. * find an state of the art fab where they could create the first prototype in less than two weeks vs 8 weeks. * Develop the process to produce the chips in high volume. * No new atoms process consumed a lot of their time and had to design their own production process since the beginning.

4) I would do a research for state of the art manufacturing facility and suggest some marketing ideas that the group could use to market their products * I would also advised not to hire more employees and be cautious and not let the market know about the 3D until at least there was a prototype 5) R/W has a much lower risk but some problems would be including no plan to produce and that the company didn’t have the money to R&D and produce. As for OTP, technical limitation was a issue and also could be considered a competitive disadvantage in the market. I recommend to start with OPT because it was a quick way to market and make profit. Furthermore, I would like to start a research on RW and further develop the 3D chip even though the payoff would be higher in the end. 6) Matrix wanted to offer the tech to digital electronics consumer market. Cameras for example had poor lens and limited storage but Matric was about to provide much for a cheaper price. It would be flash format compatible and provide high quality with a cheap price. 7) They should outsource to a fabless manufacturing because as a start up company that seems the best choice for more profit. Advantages were company focused on design and marketing, not much investment needed, higher quality and state of art facility. 8) Enter the digital camera market first because the memory chips was a fast growing market and there were only a few competitors. After dominating that market they should go to digital audio because it was growing fast as well. Digital camera had a estimated 1.4 billion dollars in sales and 80 percent of sales came from consumer cameras with film sales of 2,8 billion. While audio had 1.3 billion prerecorded cassette tapes and 2.4 billion cds and 1.3 blank tapes. Market size was very big and opportunity was there 9) The company has to make a decision on whether to target end consumers or the OEMS. As for OEMS distribution is more streamlined but the exposure matrix wanted might not be great but on the other hand end consumers were hard to get their product on production because of competition.