Do we know if Samsung is a SVGI customer? This is relevant in view of the article below, particularly the sentence, "...Samsung appears to have gotten a jump start in acquiring advanced krypton-fluoride steppers with optical-enhancement technology." Would be nice to know that these weren't ASMLF's or Canon's. Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance....SemiBull
> Dynamic RAM Players Present Next-Generation Memory Devices
> (05/11/98; 11:03 a.m. ET)
> By David Lammers, EE Times
>
> With Japan's semiconductor industry
> closing one eye for the "Golden Week"
> holiday, Samsung Electronics
> announced it had sent samples of its
> second-generation 256-megabit
> dynamic RAM (DRAM) device to
> several of the largest U.S. computer
> makers. The samples were made at
> 0.18-micron design rules.
>
> Because the die is small enough to fit
> into a 400-mil package -- the standard
> for 64-Mbit DRAM devices --
> Samsung's move was seen in Japan as
> a major advance.
>
> Separately, Japan's largest business
> daily, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, reported
> Hyundai Electronics Industries, in
> Seoul, South Korea, would resume
> construction of its fabrication facility
> in Scotland, which had been put on hold
> after South Korea's economic crash
> late last year. The company will make
> 256-Mbit DRAM devices on 12-inch
> wafers at the facility, according to the
> report. Hyundai officials were not
> available for comment.
>
> Mitsubishi Sampling
> Hitachi, Toshiba, and other Japanese
> companies could begin 256-Mbit
> DRAM sampling late this year, with
> commercial production to begin in
> mid-1999. The exception is Mitsubishi
> Electric, which already has started
> sampling a 256-Mbit
> extended-data-out (EDO) DRAM
> devices, a Mitsubishi spokesman said.
>
> The relatively simple EDO interface
> will be used in the early going by
> workstation and other large system
> vendors. They interleave the
> EDO-type memories with the narrow,
> by-8 configurations, which are
> amenable to error correction, said
> Masahiro Suzuki, DRAM analyst at
> Dataquest Japan. Synchronous DRAM
> (SDRAM) devices present tricky
> timing problems, which make it
> difficult to mix parts from various
> vendors, and which limit the number of
> buffered dual-in-line memory modules
> in a system to eight slots, he said. The
> number of modules filled with
> EDO-type 256-Mbit DRAM devices
> would not be so restricted, he said.
>
> "Many of the DRAM vendors want to
> get into the 256-Mbit generation as
> quickly as possible, because the
> 64-Mbit generation is just not
> profitable at all at today's prices,"
> Suzuki said.
>
> An engineer at NEC, which is privy to
> some Samsung technology under an
> information-exchange agreement,
> described Samsung's 0.18-micron
> process as roughly equivalent to his
> company's 0.20-micron process. But
> Samsung appears to have gotten a
> jump start in acquiring advanced
> krypton-fluoride steppers with
> optical-enhancement technology.
> Samsung has more of the
> second-generation steppers in place
> than NEC, he said.
>
> NEC said it plans to begin 256-Mbit
> DRAM sampling -- with a 400-mil
> package -- late this year. But mass
> production will not begin at NEC's
> Hiroshima, Japan, facility until "the
> second half of fiscal 1999," a
> spokesman said, referring to
> September 1999 or later. NEC is in a
> stronger financial position than
> Samsung at this point, however, and
> may be able to move ahead with plans
> to build a 300-millimeter wafer line at
> its mainstay Kyushu fab for 256-Mbit
> DRAM production, the spokesman said.
>
> Samsung made the parts using 8-inch
> wafers at an existing 64-Mbit
> production line in Kihung, South Korea,
> rather than an R&D line. Samples went
> out to IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq,
> Intel, Sun Microsystems, and two
> unnamed PC makers.
>
> Chang-kyu Hwang, in charge of the
> 256-Mbit DRAM development group
> at Samsung's R&D center, said he
> predicted Samsung will be in mass
> production about a year before any
> other DRAM maker.
>
> With a die size of 1.016-by-2.032
> centimeters (roughly double the size
> of the most advanced 64-Mbit DRAMs
> made today), Samsung appeared ready
> to take the 256-Mbit DRAM
> generation into the marketplace. With
> a power-consumption rating of just 70
> milliamperes, high-density modules
> that use the parts would not cause
> undue heating problems, Samsung said.
>
> Eventually, the 256-Mbit and
> subsequent gigabit-scale memories are
> expected to open up new markets -- a
> 256-Mbit DRAM can store four hours
> of audio recording, for example. But
> for the next two years, the 256-Mbit
> parts will be used primarily in high-end
> computer systems where the per-chip
> price is less important than the system
> performance. Samsung quoted
> Dataquest estimates of a $239 price
> per 256-Mbit DRAM in 1999, dropping
> by half in 2000 and to $55 per chip by
> 2001.
>
> Strong Growth Forecasts
> International Data Corp. said it
> forecasts a $200 million market for
> 256-Mbit DRAM devices in 1999,
> increasing to $880 million in 2000 and
> growing quickly thereafter to $9.4
> billion in 2001, said Akira Minamikawa,
> senior semiconductor analyst at IDC
> Japan.
>
> Samsung's decision to begin with a
> synchronous interface will help the
> Korean company get established in the
> wider computer market. "EDO-type
> parts may be used in the very early
> going, but the market will shift to
> 256-Mbit SDRAMs very quickly," said
> Minamikawa.
>
> The major contest during the
> mainstream years of the 256-Mbit
> generation will be between the Direct
> Rambus parts and competitors such as
> SL-DRAM devices. LG Semicon, in
> Seoul, will sample a 256-Mbit SDRAM
> by year's end, but the company's
> major target is to leverage its
> "world-leading" Rambus technology, a
> company spokesman said.
>
> Hitachi and LG Semicon have a
> burden-sharing relationship. Under it,
> LG provides Hitachi with most of the
> 64-Mbit Rambus design work, and
> Hitachi takes the lead in the 256-Mbit
> generation. "The burden-sharing story
> is true, but still, we are contributing a
> lot of our own technology to the
> 256-Mbit Rambus DRAM design," the
> LG spokesman said |
