After re-reading some older Nikkei articles I thought I would repost two that I found interesting when posted together...
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Friday, June 23, 2000
NEC Receives U.S. Firm's Approval For DRDRAMs
TOKYO (Nikkei)--NEC Corp. (6701) is leading the way in developing large-capacity DRDRAM (Direct Rambus DRAM).
The company recently became the first firm in Japan to receive validation that its 288M DRDRAMs conform to specifications from U.S. semiconductor design company Rambus Inc. NEC has begun mass-producing them and also hopes to begin shipping samples of next-generation 512M products in mid-2001.
NEC plans to produce a combined total of around 150,000 256M and 288M DRDRAMs in September, and it expects to boost production to 1.25 million units in March 2001.
DRDRAM is high speed DRAM that uses an interface developed by Rambus. It offers a data transfer rate of 1.6 gigabytes per second, twice the speed of mainstream synchronous DRAMs, but it is also more expensive to produce. Receiving validation from the U.S. firm facilitates sales to customers.
(The Nikkei Industrial Daily Friday edition)
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Monday, July 10, 2000
NEC Suspends DRDRAM Making On Poor Demand Outlook
TOKYO (Nikkei)--NEC Corp. (6701) has halted production of 128-megabit Direct Rambus DRAMs used in personal computers because it believes they cannot compete against cheaper synchronous DRAMs, currently the most widely used chip in the industry.
The company will begin producing synchronous DRAMs on lines that until recently had turned out the Direct Rambus high-speed chips.
DRDRAMs transmit data at higher speeds than synchronous chips, but they are about twice as expensive.
NEC began volume production of the advanced chips late last year, with high hopes to ship 1.5-2.0 million chips per month to PC makers starting in September.
NEC ranked as the world's No. 2 producer of DRDRAMs, after Samsung Electronics Co., but Intel Corp.'s introduction in late June of a new chipset compatible with synchronous DRAMs has boosted overall demand for synchronous chips.
The NEC production halt is, however, not permanent. The firm will mass-produce 288-megabit DRDRAMs compatible with Intel's Pentium 4 microprocessor, slated to be launched late this year, the sources said.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Tuesday morning edition |
