Amati chips in Hiroshima?
By the way Roland, I agree, Westwood is a natty place. Berkeley is paradise lost.
NEC Opens New Semiconductor Plant In Japan 04/18/97
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TOKYO, JAPAN, 1997 APR 18 (NB) -- By Martyn Williams. NEC Corporation [TOKYO:6701] and its NEC Hiroshima subsidiary have opened a new semiconductor plant in the west Japan city. At the launch of the 70-billion yen ($556-million) factory, the company announced that is now investing a further 15-billion yen ($119-million) to enable the plant to become the first in the world to mass produce chips based on a new technology.
The plant is equipped to etch semiconductor circuits 0.35-microns wide, a measurement of the smallest gap that can exist between tracks and components on the chip surface. The chip industry will soon be commercializing 0.25-micron technology and the extra investment will enable the plant to etch in the new system. NEC says the plant will become the first in the world to enter mass production in the new standard.
Total production at the plant, which has a floor area of 13,300-square meters, will be 20,000-silicon wafers, eight-inches in diameter, a month. Production will be centered on LSI (large-scale integrated circuit) chips that combine several functions onto a single chip. Specifically, 64-bit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips and microcomputers will be produced.
The new technology will enable even more to be etched onto a chip surface enabling entire systems to be combined on a single chip, so-called system on chip (SOC) technology. In October this year output will rise to 23,000-wafers per month, 18,000 of which are expected to be 0.25-micron versions.
Exchange rate: $1 = 126.00 yen
(19970418/Press contact: Aston Bridgman, NEC Corp., +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249 /Reported By Newsbytes News Network: newsbytes.com /NECLOGO/PHOTO) |
