In a remarkable change of direction only weeks after it entered the market, Monolithic Memories Inc, Santa Clara, California is abandoning marketing of its gate array product line. The company says that while it found reasonable customer acceptance for its unique approach to the design and manufacture of gate arrays – and support will continue to be provided to those who went for the Monolithic line, the dynamics of the market will hinder profitability in the gate array business for an extended period of time, and the potential return does not match the business opportunities that exist in other areas, specifically field-programmable products. The company says that the setback is not likely to have a negative impact on earnings because the gate array products were projected to contribute only 1% of turnover in fiscal year 1987. The gate array development staff will be transferred to equivalent positions in the other four divisions – Programmable Products, Programmable Cell Arrays, Advanced Logic Products and Military Products. Monolithic will also continue its efforts in the speciality memory products field.
