NEC, Lucent agree to cooperate on embedded DRAMs
Posted at 11:39 a.m. PDT Thursday, September 10, 1998
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's top semiconductor maker NEC Corp.and Lucent
Technologies Inc., one of the biggest telecommunications equipment makers in
the United States, joined hands Thursday to develop chips that would support
next-generation communication systems and digital home appliances.
NEC and Lucent Technologies' Microelectronics Group agreed to cooperate on
a new semiconductor business called system LSIs (large scale integration) that
combines multiple functions on a chip.
NEC is Japan's biggest maker of DRAMs, the main memory of personal
computers. An NEC spokesman said it would manufacture ASIC chips
designed by Lucent using NEC technology.
He said the new chip resulting from the cooperation will have a broad
application, including communications systems and digital information home
appliances, and were likely to go on sale in June or July next year.
Major Japanese chip makers, reeling from a serious DRAM slump, are
increasingly shifting their focus to a new range of business, including system
LSIs, which promises to improve their profit margins.
Demand for system LSI products is expected to boom over the next few years
as digital televisions, mobile phones and a new generation of sophisticated, more
compact household electronic products hit the market.
Japanese chip companies are also rushing to tie up to strengthen the system LSI
business.
Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd said in July that it would use International Business
Machines Corp.'s semiconductor technology to expand its business in system
LSI chips for digital consumer and network appliances.
Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd said in April that Cadence Design Systems Inc.
had agreed to provide it with advice on the development of system LSI chips.
Oki said earlier that it planned to reduce the weight of memory chips in its total
semiconductor production to about one-third from the current half, while raising
the weight of LSI and logic IC (integrated circuit) chips to two-thirds.
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