Chinese Firm to Make Advanced Chips
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Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., a leading Chinese computer chip maker, plans to begin supplying chips using more advanced technology to major clients such as Texas Instruments Inc. beginning next year, the companies said Friday.
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(InfoWorld) - Hynix Semiconductor and STMicroelectronicsÂ plan to start making memory chips on advanced production lines at a $2 billion chip plant in China next week. The project, which was inaugurated in November of 2004, will be one of the most advanced chip facilities in China, producing DRAM (dynamic RAM) as well as NAND flash memory chips on 300-millimeter silicon wafers. Hynix ST Semiconductor, which is the name of the joint venture, was built in Wuxi City, a few hours from Shanghai. The company is just the second in China to start producing chips on 300mm silicon wafers, from which thousands of chips can be made. The 300mm technology isn't easy to import into China due to U.S. export restrictions on machinery with the potential to produce items used by China's military, such as advanced chips used in missile guidance systems. The joint venture company is 67 percent owned by Hynix and 33 percent by STMicro. The companies expect the new plant to feed memory chips to the burgeoning contract PC and consumer electronics makers in China.
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(InfoWorld) - The head of the world's largest contract chip maker said his industry will have trouble maintaining sales and profit growth in the future because the overall chip industry has slowed down and there's a lot more competition. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) plans to expand to new markets and find new work in product areas such as chips for mobile phones, digital cameras, and other consumer electronics devices in order to meet these challenges, said Morris Chang, the chairman of TSMC, at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco on Monday. The company released information from his speech. Overall revenue growth in the chip industry has slowed to around 6 percent per year between 2000 and 2010, from 16 percent each year prior to 2000, he said. At the same time, more new rivals have entered the contract chip making business. His company will have to find new ways to grow despite these challenges, he said. "Growth opportunities exist in cell-phone applications, game systems, digital TV, LCD displays, power management, MP3 devices, and digital cameras," a paper Chang submitted to the conference reads. Developing closer relationships with the chip design companies that create chips for these kinds of products will be a key strategy for TSMC in the future. TSMC manufactures chips that are designed by other companies, a business model it pioneered. Prior to the Taiwanese company's founding, small chip design firms had to ask Intel, Motorola, and other big chip makers to make their chips, and these companies would only comply if their factories weren't being fully used already. Most small companies didn't have enough money to set up their own chip factory because the high tech plants used to cost around $1 billion each. Now, a new one can cost $3.5 billion. TSMC stepped in to fill the gap, and the result has been the steady growth of chip design companies that never build their own factories. They rely on TSMC or other foundry chip makers, including Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), to manufacture their chips. Mobile phone chip developer Qualcomm and graphics chip designer Nvidia are two examples of companies that have been wildly successful, despite not owning their own factories. They farm out production to foundries such as TSMC and UMC. The success of TSMC and UMC has caused a number of new competitors to enter the chip foundry business. IBM, Samsung Semiconductor, and China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC)Â are all examples of latecomers to the foundry business. These new rivals have been able to survive, and in some cases thrive. "The growth of the industry has attracted many companies to offer foundry services. Consequently, competition between these companies increases the potential for commoditization of foundry services," according to Chang's report. He goes on to say that going forward, the best defense for TSMC will be to engage with chip design customers far earlier in the developing stage of their products, and to offer a wider range of production services. TSMC and UMC hold around a 75 percent share of the global chip foundry business, according to investment banking firm Merrill Lynch & Co. Last week, TSMC said itÂ opened its first office Bangalore, India, to find new customers and help existing ones complete their chip designs faster and bring products more quickly to market. Â
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The company resolves a patent dispute with China's Semiconductor Manufacturing. But it's not enough.
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Latest Athlon 64 processors feature advanced manufacturing technology.
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SHANGHAI, China - Micron Technology Inc., the leading US based memory maker, is planning to build a test and assembly facility in China, according to an Associated Press report Monday (Oct. 18), which cited a company executive in Shanghai as its source.
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Qualcomm and Samsung Investment VentureÂ have each invested $8 million in Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Co. (AMEC), a Chinese company that plans to develop and sell equipment used to manufacture semiconductors.
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Upcoming chips will lead to relatively inexpensive hardware, company says.
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TechWeb - Chipmaker provides Linux tools to reach growing market there.
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(InfoWorld) - In a sign ofÂ China's growing importanceÂ as a center of semiconductor manufacturing, Chinese chip makers will spend more than ever before on cutting-edge factories over the next two years. Chinese spending on chip plants will top $9.8 billion between 2006 and 2008, with most of these funds going towards the construction of factories that produce chips on 300-millimeter wafers, industry group SEMI said. If realized, this spending forecast will top combined Chinese spending on chip plants over the last five years, which amounted to $8.7 billion, it said. Around 70 percent of the money that will be spent on new Chinese plants will go towards factories that use 300-millimeter wafers, which will result in an annual increase in production capacity of 16 percent by 2008, SEMI said. At least five new 300-millimeter plants are expected to come online by 2008, it said. While the fast growth of China's market presents opportunities for established chip makers as well as new entrants, established players -- especially those with Chinese government backing and overseas funding -- will fare better over the long term, SEMI said. Leading China's charge forward in chip production is Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., the country's largest chip maker. Among a string of production plants across China, SMIC has one 300-millimeter plant in production and another two under construction in Beijing. The company has also signed an agreement to manage the operations of other plants, including a 300-millimeter fab to be constructed in Wuhan. That agreement helpedÂ spark a lawsuitÂ by rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., which said the deal violated the terms of a 2005 settlement agreement that ended a patent infringement lawsuit brought against SMIC by TSMC. The latest lawsuit is currently pending in a California state court.
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The Intel Corporation has received approval to build a $2.5 billion chip plant in China amid the countryâs booming demand for chips used in personal computers and cellphones. The factory is planned for the northeastern city of Dalian, according to the cabinetâs National Development and Reform Commission, the countryâs top economic planning agency. Intel officials in Beijing and at the company headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., declined to comment, saying no formal announcement had been made.
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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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Chipmaker looks at moving toward product lineup with lots of different choices depending on a customer's workload.
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Company will make components as well as devices in 2005.
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Chipmaker to focus on technology and features instead of megahertz.
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SHANGHAI: Semiconductor Ma-nufacturing International Corp., Chinaâs top chip maker, said it aims to hike capacity by about half by the end of 2005 to feed an anticipated sales leap in a $30 billion market.
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Researchers at IBM and Advanced Micro Devices have improved a chip-making technology called strained silicon, boosting semiconductor performance at a time when such