DRAM competition in Asia, driving shift to 64Meg:
A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc.
Story posted at 2 p.m. EDT/11 a.m. PDT, 8/28/98
Japanese, Korean DRAM makers to hold equal market share in '98
TOKYO--Japanese and South Korean memory firms will close out the
year running neck-and-neck in 64-Mbit DRAM production, according
to a study released here this week.
Nikkei Market Access, a Japanese research firm, projects that both
countries will hold 37.6% share of the worldwide manufacturing
capability for the memory device in 1998.
The memory industry is rapidly switching from the 16-Mbit DRAM chip
to the 64-Mbit version. This switch has ramped up this year, partly in
response to the DRAM price woes as memory companies attempt to
bring the more dense device to market in order to garner higher profit
margins in an industry where significant profit margins have been placed
on the endangered species list.
According to the report, Japanese chip companies began shifting from
16-Mbitt chips to 64-Mbit chips last fall. The Korean companies,
shaken by the collapse of their economy at the tail end of 1997, did not
begin the transition until the second half of this year, but are quickly
catching up.
The entire market for 64-Mbit DRAM is expected to expand from 80
million units in 1997 to 680 million units this year.
American and European memory companies are also making the move,
and the two regions should account for 21.1% of the total market for
the higher density chip by the end of the year.
Another major memory transition this year is the move to adopt
100-MHz bus speeds, for use with faster microprocessors and chip sets
in PCs. Nikkei Market Access notes that Japanese companies have the
edge in this area as well. With the Korean memory firms not expected
to adopt the faster technology until 1999, the research house says the
supply of 100- MHz DRAM will not meet demand this year.
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