Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator instructions) Your first question comes from Srini Pajjuri – CLSA.
Srini Pajjuri - CLSA
Greg, you mentioned that you have a lot of design wins in the 6 gig SAS on the system side and obviously been giving the number on the server side as to how much revenue that would contribute. I’m just wondering, do you have a number in mind as to how much incremental revenues the 6 gig SAS in systems could contribute next year?
Greg Lang
The general thing that I’ll comment on first is the transition on the systems side tends to be slower. It’s not as fast as the server transition that HP just went through. So we expect this transition will probably take a couple of years.
Next year, we think the net positive gain for us as a company is probably on the order of $25-$30 million dollars. That captures essentially the share gain that will pick up over the course of the next several quarters.
Srini Pajjuri - CLSA
You’ve been talking about a new customer on the server side, IBM. Any updates on when we might see that design win or initial ramp up from the customers?
Greg Lang
I think the work that we’re doing right now first off with the joint venture that we have going on with them with the rate stack, etc. and getting product ready is going very well. So the general working relationship is very good and the milestones are being met.
In terms of when the business would start, it’s timed around the time the Westmere ramp, which is end of Q1, beginning of Q2 timeframe of next year. There has not been a design win awarded or announced at this point. So we’ll probably hear something later in the quarter, maybe the beginning of Q1 as we get closer to the Westmere timeline.
Srini Pajjuri - CLSA
My last question on the OpEx front. Mike, you said it’s increasing. Down as we enter into Q1 or any other item that could offset that decline?
Michael Zellner
Again, I think Q3 was actually an anomaly low quarter where we virtually had no tape out. So it’s more typical that we do have various tapes out on a quarter-to-quarter. So I would say that’s more typical.
In addition, there’s a few things that occur early in the year associated with payroll taxes and things like that can actually cause expenses all things the same to drift up a little bit. So I would say Q4 is more sort of typical in what you should think about in terms of a go forward scenario.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
