October 19, 1999
ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING TIMES via NewsEdge Corporation : HSINCHU,
TAIWAN - Macronix International Co., Taiwan's largest maker of flash-memory
chips, expects to break ground on a billion-dollar 8-inch silicon wafer plant, its
third, in Taiwan during the first quarter of next year.
Macronix also is seeking investment partners in a 12-inch fab, starting in 2001.
Rising demand for mobile phones, digital cameras and Internet switch products,
company sources said, has spurred the growth of the nonvolatile IC market since
the beginning of 1999. "Macronix has been seeing a steady inflow of orders for
mask ROM and flash-memory chips," said Tom Yiu, vice president of product
development for Macronix. "The production lines are operating around the clock
to meet demand and are expected to remain that way until at least the second
quarter of next year."
Macronix has its own 16-Mbit SRAM design that it is now ramping to volumes of
several thousand wafers per month. But one securities analyst said in the short
term Macronix is likely to have some packaging problems resulting from the
Sept. 21 earthquake here.
Macronix's Fab 3 will supplement the deficient output of flash-memory chips and
embedded memory products. The new fab will produce 8-inch wafers. Monthly
output is projected to start at 35,000 units.
Yu said that over the past two years Macronix's flash output has increased by 20
to 30 percent, and that will continue on the strength of demand from mobile
phones, digital cameras and Internet switches. To meet demand, Macronix
signed an OEM contract with Israel's Tower Semiconductor Ltd., which will serve
as a second source for Macronix's 8-Mbit flash products for five years, beginning
in the first quarter of 2000.
Logic foray
Macronix is also branching out into the world of logic. Earlier this month it
reported securing a large, long-term order of $2 billion from Nintendo to supply
custom-designed ASIC chip sets. Macronix said the company is also negotiating
for renewed orders with other leading Japanese companies like NEC, Sony and
Toshiba.
"About 60 percent of Macronix sales are to Nintendo," said a securities analyst
here. "They also are doing foundry [work] for Mitsubishi and VLSI."
"Currently, we provide about 65 percent of Nintendo's memory demands, " Yiu
said. "We are currently developing an ASIC chip for Nintendo's new DVD game
player. It is due to be shipped next Christmas. The ASIC is of our own design
and we will [manufacture] it for Nintendo."
Nintendo's new DVD game player will use a proprietary IBM CPU and a
Matsushita-made DVD drive.
To meet growing demand, Macronix (www.macronix.com) has applied to float
$43.5 million in new shares to raise funds at a premium of 90 cents per share.
The company will also issue global depository receipts worth $55 million to boost
the output of silicon wafers at its No. 2 plant.
Company executives said the Sept. 21 earthquake in Taiwan, and the
subsequent power-supply blackout, had forced a suspension of production
operations for 10 days and caused a direct loss of about $10 million, though that
amount is covered by insurance.
The company said full manufacturing operations resumed on Oct. 1. It said rising
semiconductor prices may push October's sales revenue past the original
projection of $64 million.
Copyright c 1999 CMP Media Inc.
By Mark Carroll
<<ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING TIMES -- 10-18-99, p. PG38>>
[Copyright 1999, CMP Publications] |
