Elpida, Powerchip to invest $13.9B in DRAM venture
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The new company, which does not yet have an English name, will open early next year in an advanced 12-inch chip factory Powerchip started building in central Taiwan earlier this year.
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A private equity consortium plans to make a $5.5 billion bid for the worldÂs biggest microchip packaging firm, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering.
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Intel will invest $65 million in Taiwanese chip assembler that specializes in flash memory and DRAM.
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Its memory-chip breakthrough could lead to new products.
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German DRAM (dynamic RAM) maker Qimonda put the construction of an advanced semiconductor factory in Singapore on hold and slashed its planned capital spending for 2008 after reporting a steep first-quarter loss.The company blamed a 40 percent&#160;drop in DRAM prices&#160;for a &#8364;598 million ($866.3 million) net loss in its fiscal first quarter, which ended Dec. 31. Qimonda&#39;s sales reached just &#8364;513 million during the period, down 56 percent from the &#8364;1.17 billion in sales it reported one year earlier.A massive 73 percent drop in DRAM prices over the course of last year has memory chip makers scurrying to realign their business strategies. On Tuesday, Qimonda&#39;s joint venture partner, Nanya Technology, and their joint venture,&#160;Inotera Memories, both posted losses and announced&#160;lower spending&#160;on new production lines for 2008.Qimonda had much the same to say. The company cut its proposed capital spending for fiscal 2008 by &#8364;250 million down to a range of &#8364;400 million to &#8364;500 million. Due to the reduction, the construction of a new 300-millimeter (12-inch) memory chip plant in Singapore has been put on hold, Qimonda said in a statement.The DRAM market took a turn south last year as companies built too many new factories and demand for new PCs armed with Windows Vista failed to meet expectations. The resulting glut sent DRAM chip prices tumbling.The contract price of 1Gb DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM chips that run at 667MHz fell to $1.81 each as of Jan. 21, according to DRAMeXchange Technology, which operates a clearinghouse for the chips. The chips were $3 each at the start of October, when the current price slump hit.Qimonda noted the 40 percent decline in the October to December period was one of the strongest declines ever, and that even previously announced measures to cope with the price slide could not compensate for the difficult market environment.The company also said it is already reassessing its outsourcing strategy. Qimonda has worked with several partners in Asia to contract manufacture its chips and in technology transfer schemes aimed at sharing the cost of research and development. These partners include Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) of China, as well as Nanya Technology and Winbond Electronics of Taiwan.&#160;
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Intel&#39;s venture-capital arm has invested in Nirvanix, a San Diego start-up company that offers a scalable online storage service.Intel Capital said Wednesday it had invested an undisclosed amount in Nirvanix, which in turn expects to benefit from access to technologies that can improve its service and expand the number of storage nodes it owns.At the heart of its service is an API (application programming interface) called Nirvanix Web Services that allows developers to incorporate the online storage service in their applications, and can be used by companies to store application data. That service charges customers a monthly rate of $0.18 per gigabyte of data that is stored or transferred. The API allows developers to control the amount stored and the bandwidth made available to the application.In addition to Intel Capital, Nirvanix investors include Mission Ventures, Valhalla Partners, and Windward Ventures.
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Japanese DRAM (dynamic RAM) maker Elpida Memory and Taiwanese contract chip maker United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) plan to work together to develop phase-change memory chip products, including PRAM (phase-change RAM), joining a&#160;growing chorus of chip makers&#160;using the technology.The two companies will also work together on advanced DRAM production technology, they said in a statement late Monday.PRAM is a speedy memory chip able to retain data even when power is shut off, similar to flash memory. The chips can rewrite data 30 times faster than conventional flash memory and are expected to have at least 10 times the life span. Several companies have formed joint development ventures around PRAM, and say&#160;the chips could replace several used in gadgets today, including DRAM, NAND flash, NOR flash, and SRAM (static RAM).Elpida and UMC pledged to use their expertise in materials and high-performance manufacturing technology, respectively, to cooperate in PRAM technology development. They did not offer a time frame for when they may have PRAM products ready.So far, two companies have announced phase-change memory products that could be out within the next year. Samsung Electronics, the world&#39;s largest memory chip maker, last year unveiled a working prototype of a 512Mb chip, and expects to have the chips available in early 2008.Intel&#160;and STMicroelectronics are developing phase-change memory at their joint NOR flash venture, Numonyx.&#160;Intel demonstrated a working prototype PRAM chip&#160;earlier this year at its developer forum in Beijing.Another major group of companies,&#160;IBM, Qimonda, and Macronix International, showed off a prototype PRAM chip that runs 500 times faster than flash memory while using half as much power to write data to a memory cell late last year. The chips would be useful in small devices where battery life is a worry for users, but production technology required for the fine circuitry of the prototype chip might not be around until 2015.So far this month, two groups have made announcements surrounding phase-change memory.South Korea&#39;s Hynix Semiconductorsigned a long-term licensing agreement with phase-change memory technology developer Ovonyx, and Taiwan&#39;s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), in partnership with six Taiwanese chip makers, believe they could have a PRAM product ready within three years.&#160;
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The chip is expected to be unveiled Tuesday, in time to bump up the performance of game desktops before the holidays.
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One of the world's largest DRAM makers plans to invest $525.3 million on two chip factories in Asia.
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(InfoWorld) - Some of Taiwan's DRAM makers have reported record monthly sales for August, highlighting an increase in DRAM prices that could continue in the months ahead. The higher prices are unlikely to affectÂ PC pricesÂ thanks to the stiff competition among system vendors and makers of other types of components, such as microprocessors. But users who want some extra DRAM for their PCs could find themselves handing over a bit more money than before. Nanya Technology, Powerchip Semiconductor, and ProMOS Technologies all reported record sales for August this week. The higher sales stem partly from an increase in PC sales in some parts of the world. That increase drives up prices for DRAM, since most of the chips -- around three quarters of the global supply -- end up in PCs. Analysts say PC demand could stay robust for the next several months, as back-to-school demand and holiday demand are followed by the launch of Microsoft's new operating system, Vista. That could keep prices for DRAM high. The spot price Tuesday for the most widely used DRAM, 512Mb DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) chips, is around US$6.00, according to DRAMeXchange Technology. Crystal Lee, a memory chip industry analyst at ABN AMRO AsiaÂ in Taipei, forecasts that prices for the chips will remain at or near that level in coming months. Powerchip and ProMOS have been improving their ability to make chips using 90-nanometer production technology, which allows companies to make chips that are smaller, more powerful and more energy efficient. It can also help them reduce costs, because making smaller chips allows their production lines to churn out more chips using the same raw materials. Nanya's sales for August rose 32 percent to NT$6.62 billion, a new all-time high for the chip maker, the company said Tuesday. A day earlier, Powerchip Semiconductor said its sales for August rose to NT$8.03 billion (US$245 million), up from NT$4.45 billion in the same month last year. The figure was also 14 percent higher than July, due to higher prices for the chips and increased output at factories. It was the company's fifth straight historical high. ProMOS's sales hit NT$6.01 billion last month, up from NT$2.53 billion during the same time a year ago, and 15 percent higher than July. "DRAM contract and spot prices continued to rise last month, but we also benefitted from our 90 nanometer process," said Ben Tseng, spokesman for ProMOS.
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Seoul - South Korea&#39;s Samsung Electronics Company, the world&#39;s largest memory chipmaker, said Monday it would invest some R136.5 billion in building new chip production lines over the next six years.
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Infineon Technologies, the second-largest chip maker in Europe, said Wednesday that it planned to invest about $1 billion in a new factory in Malaysia to expand its automotive chip business and be closer to customers in the region.
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The chipmaker announces new investments in five firms working on digital home related software and hardware.
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Company uses proprietary technology to create high-capacity server memory module.
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Advanced Micro DevicesÂ is investing $7.5 million in energy-efficient chip company Transmeta, which has beenÂ battling falling revenueÂ and widening losses.
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Computer memory chip maker Micron said on Wednesday it had indications that demand for DRAM memory chips, used mainly in personal computers, would be robust enough to soak up rising supply in 2005.
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Infineon, Europe&#39;s second-largest chipmaker, yesterday announced that it would invest $1bn in a new plant in Malaysia in a move to boost its capacities for making chips used in the automotive industry.